Happy as I was to see and take part in the recent survey for the sims 4, a few missing subjects just got to me, especially when the game seems to be slowly and unsteadily improving throughout its so many years since release.
When they spoke about emotional/social improvements, my heart leapt, the idea of romance/relationships flourishing in the background without my say so, without me having to get involved at all and eventually be surprised with sudden marriages/friendships/bromances, it felt so good to finally be listened to and see some sims 3 throwbacks over the horizon. Yes, these things aren't big changes, but when you've had to be utterly and completely in charge of your sims lives for so many years, a break is nice, incredibly nice, plus the randomised pairing of sims via the game and not you, it's interesting to see who ends up with who.
That said, I now bring attention to the missing elements/subjects, things that weren't on the survey left unsaid via staff and yet we feel the game should be getting because without them, it's not really the sims, it's just a lowkey ruler game where you have to micromanage else nobody expands!
I know I go on about improved babies, auto pregnancy and the like, but that's because it's a vital part of the game! in Sims 3, you didn't have to go to so and so's house and force interaction, sometimes/most of the time, you'd end up just having a nice picnic at the park and spot Miss Goobyfluup with her new baby and even newer man! You wouldn't have to make her find a partner because the game made her do it herself! it was a surprise and there were so many others which gave the game life, which was and is the point of sims, LIFE!
Even moodlets were more detailed, there were more of them and they actually made an impact, as did choices we made in the sims 3.
Living as a whole was more detailed, more worth spending hours of our lives watching virtual people because, at the end of the day, you'd see so much change and expansion! The Landgraabs would have so many grandchildren, the Goths would have lost their minds and Mortimer would have left town to find himself while Bella and her family coped with the sudden disappearance of her aunt who totally wasn't drowned by the maid!
The game was more! The game had more content and more things to do! Like moving in, you could be struck by thieves on the first night or left to it until you had a good amount of loot for them to steal.
How many of us remember just grabbing ourselves a new fridge and sleeping in the hallway of our homes, ready to kick some burglar rear because Plum knows we weren't about to lose that fancy new appliance! Or that cute gnome statue?! You wouldn't feel that sense of protection now in the sims because what's there to protect?! Even the repo sims aren't that scary, plum, I'm more worried about Vlad welcoming himself into my home than I am those guys. And shouldn't it be I fear both?! or all of them because, in the old days, those sims used to be worth fearing?!
As far as the game has come, it still doesn't feel worth it, and the surveys, even now, aren't touching base on things the game REALLY needs except for a few pieces, and we know most of them are going to be ignored for a cute blender or small animation that you can't even get unless you so 75 different things first!
All I'm saying is that they need to take on board what we want/need and what would improve the game instead of make money, even if it's a patch we have to wait a while for.
Not being ungrateful here, just want to expand on what they're trying to achieve.
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Out of curiosity, where you using Nraas Story progression for all these? Because the game's story progression broke around Pet's release and never got fixed. So...these things literally never happened in Sims 3 unless you had mods for them.
This. I don't remember that ever happening in TS3. They'd either get older and die alone or they'd move and never be seen again.
- Pregnancies should be longer
_ Ultrasounds need to be a thing
- There must be an emphasis on prenatal health
- We need better birthing options (all sims are required to have a C-section or event that doesn't involve a birthing experience which is totally unrealistic)
- Sims should be able to carry their babies around the house or be able to put them in a playpen/playmat
- Sims should be able to teach toddlers how to walk (was in TS3, not sure why it isn't in TS4)
- Morbid as it is, there should be prenatal diseases, maternal issues, and miscarriages (a sad fact of life!)
What do you mean by emphasis on prenatal health?
Personally, I don't want more "birthing" options. This is still a game at the end of the day. And no, not all sims are required to have a C-section. If you don't send them to the hospital, they stand by the crib instead.
ABSOLUTELY NOT on those health issues/miscarriages. Again, this is a game. We don't need that sort of tragedy in the game.
I'm pretty sure there are mods out there that do most of these. I know there is for the ultrasounds, I saw one last year.
Sounds about right. I remember a long standing legacy game I had that suddenly had no babies and no toddlers in the town. I did experiment a couple of years ago with just the Base Game (disc) installed and it worked beautifully. Well, Christopher Steel ended up with a daughter with no mother but apart from that it was fine. So it definitely seemed to be a patch somewhere along the line
So I wouldn't mind a complete reworking of the Sims 4 babies and their overall design. It is a shame because the Sims 4 toddlers came out so cute, but the babies look like they came out of a nightmare and so limited with skin choices too. So I would love for the babies to be freed. I wouldn't mind more detail with pregnancy and more emotions and more consequences in the game. I loved burglars and cops and when kids would play cops and robbers too. There is no fail safe for fires too once it starts if you have not put a sprinkler system in for when adults are not home, so there needs to be firefighters too.
Why not? Miscarriages don't have to be graphic or anything that pushes the game towards an M rating and it being a game isn't a rational reason on why it can't be in the game. Adding in more birthing options and such would expand on the gameplay. Why would it being a game matter?
As for miscarriages, they can be handled very easily. When the miscarriage event occurs, the baby simply disappears from the womb (like how it suddenly appears in your Sim's hands when giving birth by a crib or bassinet) and your Sim is given a strong sad moodlet that lasts for a week. It adds in tragedy, consequences, and more difficulty in the game (although it would be more effective if it wasn't so easy to take care of Sims in this game) without being overly disturbing. Players that do find such things disturbing really shouldn't since there's PLENTY of things in the game already that would be inconcieveable in real life.
I'm not really a family player. I've done it a couple times, but it's completely shifted to one or two Sims with no children at all and I wholeheartedly welcome expanding on the gameplay, be it birthing options, miscarriages, or what have you.
Because I have had experience with miscarriages (not myself, but close friends/family) and I don't want it in my game. Just like I don't want cancer or any other serious, fatal illness like that in the game.
As for relationships and stuff, I think the main thing I want is non-mutual relationships. Just cuz a sim likes one Sim, I dn't think that needs to be returned
Personality,depth,humor,consequences,lore,customization.
Even the idea of something irregular taking place, like a special moodlet for multiple babies in one pregnancy or a cute "baby kicking" moodlet that lasts a few hours wherein that space of time, you can invite other sims to feel it, or even suffer mild pain requiring the sim to sit down and rest.
Maybe a short-lived HANGRY trait where your sim becomes enranged and starving, demanding food from other sims and constantly eating to the point they want to be sick or sleep it all off.
Expecting Parent forums for single/new parents.
Pregnancy vlogs for the media career.
Pregnancy classes for players with the yoga pack.
A one-off scan where you can see the baby before its born.
Maybe an emergency baby reveal for male sims abducted by aliens where you go to the hospital with minor sickness/swelling and the doctor sim does the check, gasps and whisks you off for a scan before they/a nurse arrive with the news where your sim can get a negative/positive/special moodlet explaining how they feel--"Bill has just been told that lump he thought was last nights Taco casserole is actually a bouncing baby girl! He has been offered a coupon fo a free round of pregnancy yoga and a bulk pack of diapers from Sostco! Congratulations!"
If your sim is single, they can seek help from friends/family/ the government.
They can turn the bed into a literal nest which their partner has to deal either change back to the regular bed or accept defeat and crawl under the bed or take the couch until further notice.
Pets can become protective of pregnant sims/have a special bonding event where they spend so much time with the pregnant sim that they bond with the unborn child.
Sibling sims can interact more with the baby sim/expecting parent.
Sims having an alien-related pregnancy can receive support via their mailbox, delivered by a small drone carrying money or items to help with the bundle of joy.
Child support payments can be collected via the government/phone/laptop.
If a sim has an affair and their side piece becomes pregnant, their spouse can react badly and get a "Am I not enough?" moodlet should they not have children.
Sims who hate children can receive a whim to leave their parent in the event of unwanted pregnancy, obviously, they can't be the one whose pregnant but you know.
If the sim IS the pregnant one, they can have a dialogue box appear with "I can't do this! Once 'Child' is born, I'm out of here" and decide to leave the child with their partner and hightail it.
Childish/Jealous sims can feel negative about their child getting all the attention (I've known real people who get like this, it's not pretty) and complain about feeling ignored, which can either get them noticed or scolded.
Finally, in the event of a triplet pregnancy, your sim can get bigger than usual and even question their size, of course, this can happen if your sim is insecure too.
Just a few ideas I'd like to add to the table.
Oh that makes sense. I thought Christopher had been cheeky behind my back. I had the same thing with River McIrish. She had a fatherless baby boy, then she seemed to have left town (ironically the same time as Parker Langerak. Call me suspicious but... ). They both showed up in their family's family trees but they never showed up anymore in game.
So besides Fear (and I also had hope for a phobias system) I had also wished they'd considered changing the default state from Happy to Fine. Again, it's about having that balance between good and bad, dark and light. If there is no dark Empire, no First Order or Sith Lords, there is no need for the Jedi Knights. Heroes need not exist, even on a domestic level. Isn't that kind of sad?
(Hopefully someone understood my geeky references, lol.)
I like your posts. They are always my EXACT thoughts that I am thinking but cannot Express. 🙈🙈🙈🙈
I hope you wrote that in the feedback portion of the survey. It's so true. I did ask them to bring back the fear emotion.
THAT SAID, I totally agree with this -
Firstly, YES I get your Star Wars references (I am a mega-fan!!) and I completed agree with you. The whole point of the Force and the children of Mortis (if you've seen the Clone Wars) is that balance needs to be maintained between the light and the dark, and this is what the game is lacking. (I want to keep talking about Star Wars, but I'll stop myself...)
We have whims, positivity, sunshine and rainbows, but very little to none of the reverse. Failure MUST be an option to gain real engagement from a gamer audience, in my opinion. And it doesn't have to be morbid, dark or depressing - Sims 2 had mental breakdowns paired with that epic NPC, the Therapist. And if the Sims had low aspirations, they cried and moped around... So you had something to AIM for in game.
Yes, burglars should be added back into the game. They're a Sims staple and yeah, they can be kind of scary... thats the whole point ya'll. But if you have a burglar alarm, you're good... as it should be?? Anyone remember the music that played in The Sims 1 if you got a burglar?? It would give me a freaking heart attack! And that was FUN!
On babies & pregnancy -
I don't mind the pregnancy stuff in Sims 4, but I do feel like it could be enhanced by some of the suggestions I've seen here, especially about moodlets.
BABIES on the other hand...
Does anyone else find those faces nightmare-ish??? lol they look terrifying to me XD
And yes, I would love to see some more objects for them to interact with. Things like a play-mat, or a rug for "tummy time", a high chair or baby bouncer, a CHANGE TABLE for those diapers... danglemasters, toys, things for them to chew on...
Yeah, basically just enhanced TS2 babies, imma just admit that is what I mean