Hey Simmers,
Wow, it's been literally 3 years since I was on the forums, no lie. I've just been getting back into The Sims 4 over the past few days, and I have a serious question for you all...
Does it bother anyone else that we still don't have real teenagers?
When the game shipped without toddlers, the community rightfully raised all hell. We got toddlers, eventually, and I would call them the BEST toddlers of any Sims game thus far - and I say that as an avid Sims 2 player. The Sims 2 is still my preferred game, but when I play it, I miss the TS4 toddlers.
So I'm going to put myself out there and say that the game didn't just ship without toddlers. It also shipped without real teenagers.
And it really, really bothers me any time I play the game. Does anyone else have this issue? They aren't teenagers! I feel like I'm literally playing the same lifestage three times in a row - teen, young adult, adult.
So I'm wondering, is this something that is on anyone else's radar? Is it on the Sim Guru radar? Can we get it on the Sim Guru radar?
I'd personally like to see a COMPLETE revamp of the lifestage, with shorter teens, new animations and interactions, and new gameplay opportunities. I'd like to see my teenagers searching for their important "firsts" and developing that attraction system that we need, having their first pimples, developing stronger interests and tastes, acting out and wanting to find out who they are, trying "juice" for the first time... I'd like them to have different clothes and styles, to be able to argue and fight with their parents...
What are your ideas?
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I play a guy in Sims 3 who was conceived after his dad had made the genie wish where they ask for a long life. Turns out that means each life stage of kids born after that (like my sim) lasts twice as long, also in childhood. I really felt the guys frustration when he was still a teen, somewhere around his 30s and still being treated as a kid by everyone. I wouldn’t have felt that if I’d played him in Sims 4.
All the life stages need work though to be honest. (Except for Toddlers, YA and Adult). Elders and children are neglected and I would like more interactions for them. I remember my TS3 elders whipping out wallet photos to show off their family to other sims, that was so sweet! I'd like my elders to feel more distinguished, I feel like they've lived long enough to deserve it. Children should be able to interact with each other more and act like children. Pillow fights, playing pretend, tag. All my sim children want to do anymore is be alone with a tablet. If I take electronics out of the house, they talk more to each other, but that's it. It's not their fault though (the sim kids), the interactions simply aren't there.
Hey, thanks for your response. Yeah I know that some teens are taller than their parents, but this game isn't about 100% reality for me. It's a game so it's a version of reality, it's a simulation, and things are often "represented" and characatured in a Sims format, which is why that visual distinction becomes important. So I agree about using some stereotypes to get the ideas across for the different lifestages.
Yeeessss I love your post. I always really miss the "play" menu from The Sims 2 that the kids had! It was so cute. And in TS3 they had some fun games and could play tag and really act like kids.
I'd love to see a return of the "Grow Up" aspiration (I used to have a mod for one, I'll have to see if it's been updated!) Which made kids just want to have fun and get pets and grow up happy.
Freeing the babies is also fairly high on my list, but I'd prefer to see a teenage revamp and kids improved first.
Hopefully likes and dislikes make a grand entrance to the game very soon! I voted very strongly for them on the community survey, that's for sure.
As for Elders, it would nice if they could watch grandkids, teach grandkids different hobbies that they learned, show off pictures of family, set up inheritance, an option where an adult child asks them to move in to take care of them, walking cane, be able to tell stories about "back in their day".
I also agree that kids need more kid to kid interactions and kid and parent interactions. They need tag, cops and robbers, mary mac, jumping on beds, playing catch with a parent, being swung around by parent, dancing on toes, and showing off.
But, teens maybe could be improved a bit. Like instead of us having to manually apply the acne that came in Parenthood it could appear randomly on teens like the spots and tiger stripes do when a sim gets ill. Maybe the mood swings could become a bit more pronounced as well as the reactions to them by other sims. Overall though I do think the Parenthood pack added some good things to make teens seem more teen like, and I feel like I can further that with outfits and styling in CAS, so I personally am not really eager to have the dev team spend a bunch of time and money on it, because I think in the end it will cause more problems than it solves.
Uhhhhhh.....👀👀👀👀👀
*nervous laugh* of course not😅😅😅😅
1. So...my point was, that Parenthood offered some game mechanics that make teens separate from others age groups and that at least in my game I find I have enough assets to further distinguish them by how I style them.
2. That if teens were a separate height category that they would suffer from the same CAS droughts that plague children and toddlers.
And yes, some people probably do play Sims just to dress and style sims and there’s nothing wrong with that, just like there’s nothing wrong with playing just to build, blog, make machinimas, let’s plays, cc haul videos and so on. My focus is telling the stories in my head, playing dress up with my pixels, and interior decorating and remodeling builds. Others have a different agenda altogether and that’s equally valid.
I don’t think the premise of that statement even makes sense. They have added gameplay mechanics in the Parenthood pack that are specific to teens, could they be improved? Likely so, I even suggested one, or two. The only thing I really don’t want to see is a height difference because of what I said in no. 2. They would require a wholly separate clothing category that would end up as bare bones and limited as the ones or toddlers and kids.
Sneaking out? Partying before parents come home? Rooftop meetings? And everything else! Count me in!!! 🤗
The fact is they won’t add a substantial outfit department for them just like they didn’t add one for toddlers and they never had one for kids, and new packs come and every time kids and toddlers come up short, this pack kids & toddlers got 2 new hairs, that’s it. The last 2 or three packs the got nothing and if you have shorter teens they will suffer the same fate, and the fact is cc creators actually don’t make a ton of kids and toddler clothing as it is now. The vast majority of cc is for female sims T-E (because they’re all the same height), then build buy, then males T-E (again all the same height) then kids, and lastly toddlers. I suppose the smaller meshes are difficult and time consuming to make and then texture so less content gets made for the smaller sims. I don’t know for sure because I don’t know how to make cc. I have heard that suggested by some YouTubers though.
Hey Pam,
Yeah I see your point! But the thing is, we should ALREADY be up in arms about the lack of gameplay and CAS items for toddlers / children and teens haha. That's kind of my whole point
I agree that parenthood added some fantastic gameplay features, but I'd love it if my teens would act a little more crazy so my parent sims had more opportunity to use those features of discipline and reinforcement and helping them develop their characters. - That said, I mean that only if their moods are unstable or if they have relevant traits or character values. Like, my Sims who got low "responsibility" as toddlers and kids should be wild as teenagers, and Sims who lack "empathy" could have real trouble making friends and be very lonely and sad teeangers. "Conflict resolution" scores should affect how much my teens fight with their siblings and parents. Depth, depth, depth. I want it to MEAN something, you know?
I've got a couple of great mods in my game (like Zerbu's Go To School & KawaiiStacie's Slice of Life & also her prom night event) that just on their own add so much more to differentiate the experience that my teenage Sims have. If modders can come up with these awesome ideas and content, the Sims team should too?
I don't know about you guys, but I'm really tired of hearing about "time and resources and budget" excuses. It's really frustrating. Millions and millions of people play this game and buy the packs - where is that money going? This is legit your jobs, guys? To make the content we want to have in game?
But I definitely respect that for you, this isn't a huge priority. But for me, the resources they spent developing "Tiny Living" is a waste of time and money, because I don't see it adding any real depth to the game. If they come out with a "Winter Vacay Destination" game pack (as strongly hinted in the community survey), I'd also feel like it was a bit of a waste, because first of all we need the ability to set if our Sims are even INTERESTED in travelling, or would like to take up Skiing as a hobby or not.
For me, this stuff is like, basic game mechanics. The Sims 4 keeps releasing fluff for the top of the game pie without adding more filling. Better teens and more personality would be like meaty filling for me.