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Wants and Reward Store: Power/Perks/Weakness Trees For Everyone!

KaronKaron Posts: 2,332 Member
I was watching the EnglishSimmer channel and in her video she mentiones how she never remembers the memory system or the reward store, and in another channel they mentioned how they forgot that we used to have a wants system in the game that was automaticaly disabled or something like that. And, I have to agree, eve though those were features I used a lot in Sims 2 and quite a lot in Sims 3, they are so hidden in the UI that its hard to find them.

Wants: In the case of wants, I don't think the problem is that its hidden, cuz it wasn't at first, but it was just Wants, we didn't had fears like in Sims 2, and most of the times it was overpowered when a new pack came out with our sims wanting to do stuff related to that pack even tho their traits/aspirations had nothing to do with the new features. My solution to it would be to have specific wants AND fears for each trait, specific wants AND fears for each aspiration, specific wants AND fears for each emotion and specific wants AND fears for each feature/objects/pack. In those last two, they should never overrun aspirations and traits. If my sim is brave, they should never feel afraid. If my sim hates the outdoors, they should never want to do "nature" things. (I know we don't have the afraid emotion, or the brave/hates the outdoors traits YET). I know a huge group of people in the community plays likes to play their characters through their wishes/wants, so this system needs to be in the game. and it needs to be overhauled or the game will never be enjoyable for those simmers like they were in Sims 2/3.

Satisfaction Points/Reward Store: This feature in Sims 4 is a HUGE mess. Its quite "hidden" in the UI, and the list is messy and huge, but at the same time it feels small when you realize that they stopped updating it. It has emotional potions, it has traits and a feel miscellaneous. To me, this was better executed in Sims 2 than in any other sims games. They used to separate it into 3 different things:
  • Lifetime Aspiration Benefits Tree:
    468px-Sims2ft-06.jpg
    In Sims 2, according to wiki, "Aspiration benefit points are used to pay for these benefits. Each benefit costs one aspiration benefit point. A single aspiration benefit point is gained when the lifetime aspiration level increases, and when the maximum lifetime aspiration level is reached, the total amount increases to 16, allowing the player to select all motives, work, and primary aspiration benefits, as well as the first three benefits for a secondary aspiration. There are four areas in which these points can be spent: motives, work, primary aspiration and secondary aspiration. [...]".
    This feature could be improved A LOT in Sims 4 or in the next games if they treat it as a Vampire Skill tree. With each aspiration "type" we could get a whole tree with a bunch of different paths we could take making our sims unique. In real life, not a single human being is equal. Like, lets say you have 3 romance sims: you could lead one of them to be a Don Lothario kinda guy, the other one could be a TOTAL hopeless romantic that idealizes everything and would need 3 lightining bolts of chemistry + matching traits to fall in love, while the third one could be in-between like being romantic but not necessarily idealizing everyone or being a casanova. Each tree could be expanded to new traits that were added, giving more depht to our sims and detailing more our shallow traits. If we had that we wouldn't need 5 trait slots, like if you had a Hopeless Romantic sim and a Seducer sim both could unlock Great Kisser, while the Seducer could unlock "Commitment Issues" or stuff like that, that wasn't compatible with being a Hopeless Romantic but feels like part of something more like being a Seducer. Or your sim didn't need to be a seducer to have commitment issues as well, but a Hopeless Romantic would never have commitment issues, but could be more demanding/picky when choosing a partner (which isn't a reality in SIms 4). Maybe a Hopeless Romantic could've a good and bad side. You could go to the "I only want a handsome shining armored hero" or you could go "I only want someone supportive and faithful".
  • Aspiration Rewards:
    MTS_Michelle111-1354593-Cap.jpg
    Then, we had the "object" aspiration rewards that are bought with points gained by filling a Sim's Aspiration bar. According to SimWiki "These objects can have negative results if used when a Sim's aspiration bar is not at least Gold. If a Sim's aspiration bar is green, there is a 50% chance of failure when using an aspiration reward, and if it is red, there is an 80% chance of failure. What appears to matter is the Sim's aspiration level when the reward begins to operate, which is not always when the Sim begins to use it. In general, a reward will continue to operate if the user's aspiration bar drops to green while it is operating. However, if a Sim's aspiration bar drops to green between the time he or she begin to use a reward and the time it begins to operate, the reward may fail".
    What it means is that we could use those objects to help our sims in many ways like learning new skills faster, being more attractive, being more fertile, buying a money tree, a change the season/temperature, etc BUT you had to be careful. Just like we had wants AND FEARS that could be fulfilled, you could end up with side-effects of using those objects when your sim was in a bad mood. Adding consequences and disasters to this game would make it more fun, random and challenging. Random things can be helpful even when you love to micromanage your sims, cuz sometimes you jsut don't know where to go/which path to take in your storyline and something different happens to give you more ideas.
  • Career Rewards:
    Resurrect-a-Sim-on-Sims-2-Step-2-Version-2.jpg
    To me career rewards in Sims 4 are kinda better than in SIms 2/3, but at the same time its kinda messier. Some careers give your sim objects, some give your sim clothing and some can give your unique traits. To me traits shouldn't be rewards, as they are important tools to develop our sims personality. Reward traits should be always accessible through CAS or being one of the branches in a Lifetime Aspiration Benefit Tree, but we could have a tab in the career UI in live mode that we could see grayed out or "unlocked" rooms. With each level we could have a grayed out room, but with some "unlocked objects". Also, we could've something similar to the Nifty Knitting in CAS with locked/unlocked clothing. BUT all of that would always have cheats to unlock. I just think its TOO hidden for people to remember it exists in this game, I would rather have all clothing and objects appearing to me even if it had a lock symbol, so that if it were EXACTLY what I needed to build a house in that moment I could see its there and that I could unlock with cheats without having to play. But it could also be forever unlocked AFTER I played with any family in any save file at any time.

Memory System: Another "too hidden for my taste" feature that should be a MUST in all games. I wish it was more like SIms 2, less like SIms 3 and MUCH less like Sims 4. I don't need all memories to have pictures to them, I want them to be transferred to the gallery, I want to be able to delete them/create them but not necessarily manually create ALL of them all the time, and I don't need my sim to remember all the times he met a cockroache in their lives. I don't even remember when I saw a cockroach for the first time.

I feel like separating the rewards and adding consequences to our decisions would benefit this game so much, to the extent that it would encourage people who had difficulties transitioning from Sims 2 to 4 or from Sims 3 to 4.
Post edited by Karon on

Comments

  • KaronKaron Posts: 2,332 Member
    #VampirePowerTreesForEveryone #TraitDephtTreesForEveryone
  • izecsonizecson Posts: 2,875 Member
    edited August 2020
    If it augments sim's bad and good traits like you could be a bookworm but your weakness that you gain less fun from any other 'fun' activity other than reading, im all for it. but not for occult superpower for regularsims
    ihavemultiplegamertags
  • KaronKaron Posts: 2,332 Member
    @izecson no, not superpowers but like strenghts, weaknessess, perks and quirks, etc... Like if you're a tech type sim you could be addicted to playing in your cellphone (and then they would turn off our sims autonomously playing in their cellphones all the time cuz thats annoying when unwanted).

    More like this sims 2 one, but improved and expanded to fit all traits:
    468px-Sims2ft-06.jpg
  • izecsonizecson Posts: 2,875 Member
    I really love that.
    ihavemultiplegamertags
  • filipomelfilipomel Posts: 1,693 Member
    If all Sims had perk trees that reflected their personalities (so each sim will have a different set of perks to unlock) that could single handedly fix personalities and add an in-depth long term form of game play.
  • NationalPokedexNationalPokedex Posts: 829 Member
    I’d love a system like this! I think my only thing is I would like it to be slightly less linear than the current trees (which would mean it’d have to be a bigger tree). I know trees go up but I’d really want a tree that goes out. That way your Sim might have more dominant and more subdued traits depending on how you navigate the tree. Hope this makes sense.
  • fififoofoo2123fififoofoo2123 Posts: 149 Member
    i remember when that trait tree was first introduced in Sims 2 Freetime - it really did enhance the game. it’s too bad something similar hasn’t been implemented, and i wish memories had been put in Sims 4 as well but...we’re dealing with developers who think Sims 4 Star Wars is what the majority want lol
    Current profile pic is of my current fave sim to play with! :-)
  • KaronKaron Posts: 2,332 Member
    I’d love a system like this! I think my only thing is I would like it to be slightly less linear than the current trees (which would mean it’d have to be a bigger tree). I know trees go up but I’d really want a tree that goes out. That way your Sim might have more dominant and more subdued traits depending on how you navigate the tree. Hope this makes sense.

    @NationalPokedex thats what I'm thinking. Like maybe 3 different ways to grow your tree that were positive, neutral and negative and that you HAD to choose some quirks/vices/sins along the way
  • KaronKaron Posts: 2,332 Member
    I'm really hopeful for a feature like that. I was thinking with myself today that maybe the lifestyles and the sentiments are just the beginning of a new era in the Sims 4.
  • filipomelfilipomel Posts: 1,693 Member
    Karon wrote: »
    I'm really hopeful for a feature like that. I was thinking with myself today that maybe the lifestyles and the sentiments are just the beginning of a new era in the Sims 4.

    I sure hope so, Lifestyles and Sentiments are the first real addition to core gameplay that we've had since launch, let's hope they continue with this trend.
  • StrawberryYogurtStrawberryYogurt Posts: 2,799 Member
    This is why I mainly play TS2. It has some really great systems that a lot of people sleep on!
    The Sims has currently lost its identity. Bring it back for TS5

    FixedCoarseFawn-max-1mb.gif

    Personality,depth,humor,consequences,lore,customization.
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