* NPCs taking initiative in relationships - NPCs should ask to be in a relationship, propose, break up, divorce, ask to just be friends, etc. based on their current relationship level, their traits (e.g. non-committal), their sentiments with the other sim, and a small element of randomness. * When inviting your sim out, NPCs should give realistic options. Asking someone to come over shouldn't only mean, "drop everything and get here right now". Your sim should be able to say, "I'll be there right away/I'll be there in an hour/this evening/let's hang out tomorrow". * Townies should only very rarely spawn outside their home worlds, instead of being stalked by Mortimer Goth and Judith Ward everywhere you go
Additionally, there should be a memory system to compliment the sentiment system so that major life events have long-term consequences.
I love what The Sims 4 has and play it a lot, but I would still describe it as a dull playmate. We are supposed to be playing together, but I need to come up with all the ideas. In a better situation my playmate would sometimes surprise me. It could be a random death or a struggle that I have to overcome, something unpredictable. To me that would add depth, but also a challenge.
I only have a couple of specific suggestions regarding adding challenge:
Lifetime goals
There would be a lifetime goal (possibly more than one) tied to each trait in the game. When aging into a young adult your sim would get to pick their lifetime goal based on the traits they have. This would make the traits more meaningful, but also give you some options to choose from.
More lifespan options/custom lifespan
I have always felt that normal lifespan is too short whereas the long is just too long. Having limited time is one way to add challenge to the game and not finding a comfortable lifespan to play with has removed this challenge from me. Could we please have a new option between normal and long - or custom lifespans?
I want to add something to what I said above. I would like us to have a kind of world management, where we can choose which sims will be generated next for the different positions. There is a MCCC mod
that through a tag generates the townies that you chose, I would love for this to be implemented in the base game. I want to be able to control which inhabitants are in my city. I would also like to restrict random visits between worlds
Elvira Lapida running at 9.00 am in Brindleton Bay? I do not think so. Has no sense. More challenge in relationships, you can marry and divorce a person in just one day and the next day remarry and divorce... This does not make sense.
Thank you so much for opening up the forums for feedback. It’s awesome that after all of these years the team is still looking for ways to improve the game.
I’ve had so much fun brainstorming ways that I think the game could be more challenging. Here are some of my ideas:
Whims I miss whims! It would be wonderful if they came back and were tied to personality traits. Whims based gameplay is a fun challenge to let “the sims” choose their own life. Especially when it comes to choosing partners, having children, career decisions. I loved how in the past your sims rolled wants to get certain jobs based on their traits.
The game can go in unexpected ways when you let your sims be in charge.
Romance: Chemistry system I wish my sims had some way to indicate to me who they prefer to get together with instead of just me choosing at random. ( I’m still going to probably choose for them, but I will consider their wishes. It would be nice if there was some challenge involved. Haha. )
One sided relationships * The ability to have one sided crushes. * The “confess crush” option would be a way to see if the other person decides to reciprocate (maybe like a chance card), and if they don’t it could cause a sad buff. * One sided relationships could also apply to friendships/enemies. Maybe Nancy Landgraab brought your sim rancid fruitcake during the welcome wagon event that gave them food poisoning and she doesn’t know that they will forever secretly seethe when she waves as she passes their house.
Online dating * You could be catfished (or catfish others if your diabolical) or someone dreamy could show up. * Other singles (or people masquerading as singles) around town could be available to meet up with too.
Money: More Ways to spend it: I love how the simple living lot trait makes you pay for groceries, that definitely helps realism, but my uber wealthy families get boring to play with all of that money just burning a hole in their pockets.
Some ideas include * More outlandishly priced furniture (maybe a restoration hardware type pack) * Ability to purchase multiple homes * Private school for children * Hiring personal trainers to come to their house or meet them at the gym. * The truly wealthy and famous could hire body guards/security for your house (in case burglars ever come, gotta protect all of that money somehow!)
Loan system: For my families that are just starting out it would be awesome to have a loan system so they can have a house to move into straight away, but still have the challenge of having to pay the money back instead of just using motherlode.
More business types for gameplay challenges: I’m sorry if this counts as “requests for content” but I feel like running a business adds so much challenge to my game. Some ideas:
Hotels/beds and breakfasts: Lately I’ve had a blast running my own quaint bed and breakfast in Henford with combining households for “guests” that I cook for and clean up after and I’ve been cheating money at the end of the week when they “leave”. it would be great if running a B&B or a hotel could be a feature in the game along with letting my other sims frequent them while on vacation.
Salons I also like to build salons for my stylists sims to work at. Right now I have to chase NPCs down the street to get them to let me give them a makeover and cheat the money afterwards. Not exactly a great business practice :) It would be great if these were functional with other sims either being able to visit to get a new look or a manicure.
Movie theaters: I love to create theaters using the items from movie hangout, but the venue does not function very well because no one sits and watches the movies. Lost Dogs Journey Home is on, no one wants to talk about grilled cheese right now Bob Pancakes! I wouldn’t necessarily want to run one, but it would be great as a venue for my sims to visit.
Community lots: As you can see, I love making community lots with multiple functions: restaurants, shops, cafes, gyms, but it’s hard when I have to pick between which one will be functional. I wish there was a way to have multiple things function at the same time.
Family play:
More group activities: Love that you added group cooking! Thank you!!! I think it would be great to have even more ways for sims to play together. All age groups could benefit from have more interactions with each other and their families. I get so sad when sims have to ride in boats all by themselves. Lol It would be awesome to have family boat rides, jogging together, hiking together (anywhere), more games together, more mentoring each other, throwing baseballs together, etc.
And now for the expected cliche ones: Babies: In my opinion, babies bring no depth or challenge or warm fuzzy feelings to game play currently. It would be awesome to release them from their bassinets and make them mobile (with real cribs, and bouncers to set them in while you cook, and changing tables etc.) while bringing some of the sweet and sour aspects of being new parents trying to figure out how to take care of their new baby. It would be fun if there were different types of babies too: good sleepers, bad sleepers, happy babies, not happy babies, you get the idea!
While we are at it…
More lifetime events for teens and children: To make the experience of being young feel different from being an adult: going to school dances, slumber parties, learning to drive, ability for teens to sneak out, etc.
Toggles Lastly, If you ever do story progression- please have it be a toggle. I’ve been playing my main save since 2015 and I would hate if chaos broke out in my carefully crafted world. :)
and while we are toggling things- it would be awesome to toggle supernaturals (and dust bunnies) too. Some saves I play in are super realistic while others are not.
Thank you so much!!! I can’t wait to see what the Sims team comes up with in the future.
"What would you expect from [a higher level of challenge and depth]?" • For a life simulator like the Sims, I would associate "challenge" with "randomness," i.e. events that occur outside of my direction and have the potential to leave both minor and major impacts on my gameplay.
"How would this change your current experience of The Sims 4?" • Family gameplay is my go-to style of play. I create one sim, find them a marriage prospect, and progress to new generations while waiting for the older to pass on. It tends to become very repetitive, and most of my enjoyment comes from having my brain engaged with keeping up with their needs, skills, and school/work requirements. Being randomly dealt challenges that disrupt this gameplay pattern would create opportunities for me to play in ways that I wouldn't usually consider.
"What specific areas of the game would you like to see more depth in?" • Specifically, I find it too difficult for sims to die. Sims almost never die from any cause other than old age without direct player intervention. A sim who's just been electrocuted will have a big moodlet right at the front of the list warning that they'll die if they attempt any other repairs before it runs out. A sim who catches on fire will self-extinguish without player input - and often the fire will just harmlessly burn out on its own. Overheating sims must be directed back into the sauna repeatedly. Illnesses are tied exclusively to Get to Work and are essentially all harmless cosmetic changes with a small uncomfortable moodlet that clear up immediately with medicine that can be obtained instantly from computers. Emotional deaths require such insanely high emotion values that they're barely possible to trigger even with pointed player intervention. The cow plant can't kill a sim unless they take its bait twice. Ghost sims can be invited to the household and resume their regular routines or be revived through a variety of methods, so it would be nice to have options to make death a more tangible presence in regular gameplay.
I've focused a lot on death here because it's what I feel to be the most frustratingly easy part of the game, but it would be great to have a random chance for a wide variety of negative hardships to break the gameplay loop and create more memorable events and experiences.
To me the most that needs to truly be updated is the lack of 'story progression'; hopefully one you've heard before. I know the 'sentiments' added to the game seemed like a positive direction the game was in, but to me they are sort of failing; because the sentiments just vanish, and then pop up again EXACTLY the same when I have another meet up with the same sim.
Sentiments to me are supposed to be more like actual memories that are long term, and last for a lifetime, and come back to pay off like a chekhovs gun. An example why I was playing the game: Cassandra came over for a party at that Ito kid's house and she messed up by setting herself on fire; I LOVED that, my sims Oliver ended up 'saving her' and they shared that sentiment. How amazing would it have been if that actually STUCK in there. Maybe Cassandra could be more fearful or I thought in the future if these teen sims were older they could have a special connection or bond and would be able to 'do something' with that.....but the sentiment just went 'poof'...nothing else but a temporary little description...what's the point of that sentiment then?
Shouldn't sentiments be closer to 'memories'? lol In the sims 2 it was pretty basic; 'bad childhood' 'got pregnant' 'had baby' 'got divorced', but to me even that was more meaningful; because they STUCK and in a simple way defined certain behaviours in the sims. Lilith definitely became more rotten after having a terrible childhood. The sentiments seem to mean nothing like that in the Sims 4.
I think the MC command center mod might adjust it, but honestly I think it should be in game already without me trying to figure out which mod does the trick; the vanishing relationships, even if the sims were bloody friends. it is IMMERSION BREAKING and kind of makes me really sad and just quit the game.
Also actual events are really overkill in a bad way; I don't like these lot challenges simply because to me I don't want the same 'haunted' doll to randomly pop up again and again and again and the same same ghosties; it's like the same trees you cut in minecraft and really I don't like it one bit. Frequency of things like 🐸🐸🐸🐸 or dolls appearing can go down, instead more diversity, less frequency.
Aspirations could be less like tutorials, because you've seen it after playing with one sim.
The lifestyles are nice, but could definitely be tweaked; my sim had a single and loving it lifestyle and then got married and still had it, I mean do I really need to remove that myself? LOL Sorry but I like play pretend but not to that degree.
I would love to see more immersive and realistic gameplay. My gameplay tends to be more of soap opera style (loved the lore in Sims 2) with drama and big events. Maybe now you say more like candid reality. I apologize if this comes across as a wish list, I am struggling to explain without providing some examples:
Weddings and parties- In real life both partners would be able to invite all their family and friends to their wedding ( I would extend this to parties in general), in game the person scheduling the event only has access to their own relationship panel, not their partner's or the rest of the household. If my sim is hiring a caterer there should be a menu option like the one we have for Dine Out or just have three different menus dependent on budget (I might want my rich sims to have lobster or beef wellington but maybe for another wedding I want to serve the guests pizza.) Wedding cakes should be included, I always forget that cake is under "cook" and not "bake." Wedding events have not had any significant innovation since Sims 2, it would be nice to have a wedding party with best man/maid of honor or main attendant, ring bearer, etc. More romantic interactions like slow dancing, so miss it especially at weddings. More party options like bridal and baby showers, bachelor/bachelorette parties.
I agree with more autonomous interactions, like an objection at a wedding or maybe the partner gets cold feet at the alter. I think big events should affect other sims in the household and have lingering consequences, for example a divorced father remarries and the kids do not like the new step-mom. If the couple go on to have a baby maybe one or more of the kids is jealous or afraid of losing their father, they seek out his attention more or want nothing to do with their new sibling.
Interactions between sims should be reflective of their relationship or given mood, I will use pregnancy as an example. I think the pregnancy announcement exchange should differ depending on the other sim. Telling your partner about a pregnancy should either be more joyous (tears, strong embrace, excitement, etc) or nerve wracking (maybe sim has cheated, partner does not want kids and is not excited, gets visible upset or mad). As of right now the sharing of a new pregnancy is the same for the partner, siblings and the NPC sitting next to your sim at the bar. It is not that realistic.
Consistency with emotions, if my sim is picking a fight with another, maybe a love rival or an annoying next door neighbor they should not stop and have friendly chit-chat between interactions, there needs to be more of a build-up of emotions where things start to progressively heat up and there is tension.
More random events that affect your sim like burglars, bad storms destroying properties, loss of income or having certain sims that turn up to cause havoc (the person your sim is having an affair with shows up to tell your partner or your in-law who is difficult wants to stay for the weekend, your kid invites several friends for a slumber party and they are creating a mess, asking you to order pizza, stay up late, etc.)
Pack integration - I have Dine Out, Get Famous and Eco Lifestyle. The following are examples and not meant to be a wish list. I would love to have a sim who goes to auditions during the day (It would be great if we could prepare for auditions and have them be a real game event versus sims leaving the lot) and waits tables at night (would love to see sims be able to work at various lots - yoga instructor, chef, mixologist, waiter). Have the Eco Lifestyle apartment lot be one that we can place anywhere - a struggling actor would probably live in an apartment with roommates versus a house.
Also some Quality of Life changes - ability to lock in hair and makeup for outfits, be able to adjust lighting without a sim present on lot, toggle off weather effects for building. More lots for building, I think a refreshing of some maps would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for the opportunity to voice our concerns and thoughts.
For more challenges Id like to see more consequences for sims actions aside from just a super sad moodlet that could potentially kill the sim. Other responses from sims, more stuff in the game to drive more story. Maybe sims autonomously spread rumors if they witness cheating happening.
[list] [*] A Create a World Tool. Making own worlds and editing existing ones is a basic feature since the Sims 2. Without one we will lose all, especially the day when the game is not developed any longer and has to stand on its own feet.
[*] Social autonomy. Yes we need more drama, random events, evil and mean stuff etc but all of this is useless without social autonomy. The sims have to start the drama on their own. Like people with a personality. At the moment they are just pupets and we have to force them to do anything.
[*] basic every day animations. Things like lying on the couch to read or sitting on the floor to chat
[*] Game features have to be available in all worlds. We still don't have stray pets in all worlds. And this is just an excample. That is a no go. Every world is boring at the end because it has just this one game feature. And if you don't want to give it to us then give us a CAW tool so we can add it ourselves.
[*] A bunch of other small things: I want the missing supernaturals from the previous games. Horses even if the worlds are not open because they are members of my family and i don't want to play the next generation of this familys without my horses. Fully CAStable and flyable Dragon Pets, Kyuubis and Unicorns.
A couple of things come to mind when thinking of improving this game:
- Relationships in the sims are often one-sided and initiated by the player themselves. I liked in older sims games that you would have other sims who are interested and call you or leave roses outside the door after a date. - Death in the sims 4 NEEDS to be more frequent and easily achieved. In ts4 i struggle to have any sims die of anything other than old age. I want the risk of things! It's nearly impossible to accidentaly lose a sim lest you try very very hard. This could also implement illnesses from Get to Work to play a bigger role. - Speaking of get to work, id love to see more abductions, especially from using the telescope! Id also love for players who have both strangerville and Get to work to see a higher chance of abductions, similar to strangetown in ts2. I really do wish you would implement packs to work with each other better. I understand some simmers wont have all packs, but thats not a reason why packs should work so little together as they do now. - I really need a pet revamp. It feels as though you released pets and said thats it, done. They need to be more implemented into gameplay! if you wont make them playable, please consider thinking of other packs again like cottage living, and think of how we could have farm dogs, cats who play around with the chickens etc! - I find it strange you guys dont think more about packs working together once u release packs. We need the newer skills as extra classes in university, knitting or using crochet to make cat/dog sweaters etc. Id love to see you get creative in how packs can work together. Some people not having the packs is not an excuse when you look at ts3 or ts2, its a fair think to ask i think. - Id also beg for more things in your packs. all of them. I understand the other sims games were different times but frankly i dont see how you can ask so much for packs that are so buggy even on release. And thats even with a lack of gameplay and stuff in the pack for that price anyways. Sorry to be so blunt. I am a bit upset at where sims is at right now. I dont understand why all gameplay is a dlc- its a simulation game so we need gameplay! - Id also formally ask for burglars - Id love a carpool to come pick up kids for school, and similarly a car to pick up adults to work. It adds so much immersion!
Hello. I'm a PlayStation player. Love the game. Some things I would love done to help with the game When your sim gets asked on a date I would love for the other sim to pay not your played sim. If the hospital could have a few other employees. The doctor is usually not the person that would handle patients from start to finish, I guess unless it's a very small practice in real life. House loans would be awesome. Being able to get a little bigger house for starting play without cheats would be nice. It would add more money having to come out each week and I think that would help with sims getting too much money and the game getting dull. I think another good challenge could be (and players could opt out if they like it the original way) but to have unplanned pregnancy. I think it's a lot funner sometimes to go oops. (I'm on console and can't have mods) Not a trait, but kind of the same if you can make it so your sim gets skills slower or to just adjust it so they are naturally good or bad at some skills. Like my sims can program a computer quick but can only draw stick figures. And maybe on the health side of things. D a generational sickness. If your parent had llamapox you may also get llamapox. Something that isn't a real life scary illness but that could make your sim have to change something about them. That's all I can really think about at them moment for challenges. Thank you so much for reading all of these. Lots of good ideas for sure.
I would love for it to be more challenging to travel between worlds. Maybe there should be a payment when you try to travel that varies depending on how far that other world is supposed to be, maybe you should have to stay in that world for a specific amount of time and have to stay on one of the rental lots... I think it would add a lot to the depth of the game and add a layer of challenge --> Imagine this scenario: my sim's dream is to visit Sulani, but she's from Willow Creek and doesn't have a lot of money, I would actually have to save up and budget her travel there cause like a "ticket" would be a $1000 and then she has to stay for at least 2 days and pay for a rental lot. Adding to that it would be cool if townies could stay in their respective world if we're not playing with them.
Oh, something came to my mind. You should also add another toggle in the options menu for disabling unrealistic stuff. Eg. I love the idea of houses getting dirty over time, I love the dust system, but I don't want to see those bunny abominations hopping on the floor. I shouldn't be forced to use mods OR disable the whole system I paid for. It would be very much appreciated if you considered such things while you are making decisions about the content you release. Maybe you can move the pack/content preferences to a whole new UI/menu at the start-up screen of the game, like where "my packs" are listed. Players should have more control and freedom over how they play their game. This is also why I refused to buy Get Famous expansion pack for a very long time until I was assured that there were a couple of mods that handled celebrity interactions. This is also something that affects the gameplay experience according to one's personal taste of how they maintain their game. This is supposed to be a sandbox life simulation game, right? That is why you abandoned lore, story progression and other great features... Then at least stand by your words and make it appropriate.
Listen and fix problems. More in depth relationships like Sims 1, 2, and 3. Better game play like Sims 1, 2, and 3. When the stove catches fire everyone should die just like in Sims 1, 2, and 3. When I divorce one sim from another they should cry for days. NPC witches should cast random spells on other sims like in Sims 3. Vampires should actually suck blood randomly. Mermaids should kiss random NPCs, or be able to make another sim a mermaid by giving mermaid kelp from their inventory. When they pull a NPC under water, they should drown. It simmers do not want this they can turn if off. All we are asking is richer gameplay that will keep us coming back and buying more. The next expansion pack should have as much as one of your kit, game, stuff and expansion packs together, giving us more complex and better gaming. It should be well thought out and tested extensively on many types of systems with different types of players.
As a long time simmer, I’ve always felt The Sims 4 was way too easy, so I’m glad the sims team is considering changing the game or at least giving us some more options! I just want to start by saying that the simple living challenge is exactly what I’m looking for when it comes to this game so keep it up! This is actually something I’ve been thinking about for a long time now so I’m sorry if this is long…
The Sims Themselves We really need an update to traits and aspirations. There aren’t many “bad” traits and the aspirations that came in packs are way too easy, plus there aren’t many of them. We should be able to choose 5 traits instead of just 3. More “bad” and negative traits or traits that add challenge to our gameplay like absent minded, neurotic, can’t stand art, hydrophobic, never nude, and unstable. I fell like there should be more aspirations (from packs, base game is fine) and they should be harder. At least make the ones that we already have be harder, like Spellcraft & Sorcery from RoM. The final milestone “Wand-earful Spellcaster” only requires you to get to Rank 5 and know 10 different spells, but I think it should require you to learn all spells. Personally I think the aspirations should have just one list of things to accomplish that could be a bit simple or extraordinary. However I do think the ability to pick another aspirations after completing one is a great addition and shouldn’t change. Lastly I want to talk about the sims’ needs. I think the comfort need should comeback and a hydration need for drinking water and liquids should be added. I always feel bad making my sims stand for hours painting, playing instruments, and gardening so I think adding a hydration need would be very nice as it would give us something else to manage and take care of through the day. It should also go down during rabbit hole jobs, some more so than others (physical jobs like the athletic career more so than a sit down job like the business career). A hydration need would be similar in that it would be something else for us to keep track of to keep our sims from dying.
Schooling I always thought school for child and teen sims was easy and I’ve always wanted something more detailed and difficult. The projects from parenthood were a great addition! We need more of that. Book reports, history paper, essays, speeches, presentations, test days that to be studied for, the works! It would be nice if we could pick certain classes for our students and they had to go to school with a project like a painting or wood sculpture or any of the other mentioned projects on certain days. Adding honor and AP classes so that our students have more homework and projects than normal would be really fun and if some players find the extra work annoying it can be for only the harder classes.
Skills There are so many buffs to speed up skill gain its kinda crazy and definitely gotten out of hand. An easy fix would be to just put an option in settings to slow the base skill gain for players that want it. Something like 50% would do. Also adding a cleaning skill and more things to clean would be good and a simple way to add more challenge to everyday life. Like sweeping, making beds, cleaning pools and rugs, wiping down tables and maybe even mowing the lawn? But that might be under gardening... Anyways, when it comes to cleaning rugs, sweeping floors, and cleaning tables I think sims removing whatever’s in the area they’re trying to clean with the “swipe” animation would do just fine. Then they can get to work! The lower the skill the slower it is to clean things and the more likely you are to screw up some cleanings (like the pool). Also, for certain skills I think requiring equipment and resources might be a good idea. Like how painting has you “purchase” supplies when you first start a painting, more skills should require things like that. Like with fishing, you should have to buy a fishing pole and it might break while trying to reel one in. Or with instruments you have to tune them occasionally and buy things like strings for the violin and guitar, and resin for the violin bow and it also has a chance of popping. However, for other skills, resources should be required. Like woodworking/handiness should require wood, mixology should require you to get different colored or flavored juice and nectar, and writing should require you to gather inspiration for themes like the eurekas for the scientists career or like the poems and plays that Bards had to write in The Sims Medieval. I want this for woodworking and writing because I feel like these are easy ways to make money so this would add some challenge to them. With mixology, its just a added some gameplay. Gardening is one of the best skills in the sims games imo and I think ts4 has the best implementation or it, however, it can be improved. Not needing to water your plants every single day is nice but not water them for days on end is ridiculous. There needs to be some balancing there. Irl plants can actually get diseases and I think that would be a great addition. Its another thing to keep track of and will make us stay on top or our plants! Also why do fish not have specific bait anymore? That adds way more challenge because in order to get certain fish you might need to get another fish which requires you to get some other fish which would require you to get a specific fruit. This was really fun to figure out in past games so I’d be nice to bring back here.
Jobs, Money, Bills, and Services Many people, including myself, have complained about the amount of money given to us through the careers and while it would be nice to have the salaries adjusted, I think a better and more fun way to fix this is to just give us more things to pay for! Services specifically like daycare, healthcare if we have Get To Work, after school college prep/cram school for Discover University, and private and boarding school. In real life music and tv subscription services are popular (or at least common…) so adding some to the game could be fun. Also adding bills for tv, internet, garbage, cell phone, to the game would make it more stressful when the bills are due. This is also something that could be adjusted in settings or with the lot challenges. I also think the option to make degrees a requirement for certain levels of certain jobs would be nice.
The Potential Of Cars I’m not sure of what the sims team thinks of cars in ts4 but I know a lot of simmers think of cars in the game as useless because there’s no open world, but thats only surface level thinking of what cars can bring to the game! Irl, car require gas and maintenance otherwise they breakdown and cant be used until fixed or may just need to be scrapped all together. If cars were added they should require gas or electricity, need maintenance like engine tune ups, oil changes, transmission and power steering fluid changes, and brake repairs. Many people rely on cars to get to and from work so going too long without a check up or letting problems go unrepaired will cause your sim to be late to work.
Police/Consequences The game is too safe! And my sims can get away with too much stuff lol. Our sims should get arrested if they get caught stealing, start fights with other sims, or get caught hacking. Also I think our sims should have “records” and if they have too many bad encounters with the law they can get fired and not be able to get certain jobs. Like if you’ve been caught stealing, they may not want you at the space station and around all the expensive equipment. Adding crime would be cool too. Like burglars and if cars are added you can have car jackers or people who only steal tires and radios. It would also be cool to have some evil criminals that just want to make other sims live miserable like coming over to constantly kick trash cans, break items, and placing pranks like whoopee cushions, spraying sinks, graffiti artists, teepeeing, and calling you to ask questions like if your refrigerator is running. Just smaller, annoying crimes but nothing too crazy or violent. Lot challenges and traits would be perfect for this because you can place your house in a high or low crime area.
Sorry that was so long, but like I said, I have been thinking about this for a while now and I got a lot of ideas lol. If something was confusing feel free to ask me everyone!
One thing I feel very strongly about is that “more difficulty” shouldn’t mean “more/harder time management” — grinding needs with a large family has never been the main appeal of the game for me. For me, a deeper game with more difficulty comes down to consequences, in and out of relationships, differentiating sims and their relationships, and giving goals to the player that require some strategy.
Consequences outside of relationships
The tuning would be important here, but I think there should be a chance for random bad things to happen — or even just unexpected things. Bad days at work that lose performance or worse, something causes your sim to not be able to improve relationships for a day, a physical injury means your sim needs a day off work or worse, your sim goes to work but comes back to work from home because the internet was out at the office, snow days, danger and death etc. Right now, the worst thing I get are small performance gains.
Consequences inside of relationships
I will say that the single most disappointing experience I’ve ever had in the Sims 4 was when something bad happened in my game that upset me, but my sims were completely over it in 2 sims days, because my sims felt completely disconnected from me and their story. Now I’m a storyteller so I ended up having an author sim process his feelings through book titles for a long time afterwards, but in the reality of the game … totally didn’t care at all about what would be a devastating life event for anyone but a sim. I would like sims to be upset about divorce and death! I would like them to have an opinion about their sister-in-law flirting with them without having to be caught by their sibling! I would like at least a chance for longlasting consequences… I know lifestyles are dlc, but as an example … maybe a sim could have a chance % to abruptly lose the adrenaline junkie lifestyle if, like, their kid died, or to become a workaholic if their spouse was cheating.
Different types of relationships
I really enjoy Parenthood because it makes me actively work on guardian/child relationships and different outcomes are possible. I would like more of that, with more types of relationships. I think it would add a lot of depth if I could have siblings who have tons of fun together but whose deep conversations always go wrong, or a couple who is all passion and impulse vs. one with lots of trust and communication. Just… having things to work toward in relationships between sims, that then allows me to differentiate those relationships.
(Also I would love the return of fatal flaws from medieval. Or something like them. Not sure where to fit that in, but something not wholly positive to differentiate sims and influence longterm storytelling.)
Goals for the player
I like working towards things with my sims as a player. I’ve liked getting all the fish as part of an aspiration, for example, since that required learning where I can catch all the fish, leveling up handiness so I can access all the fish, etc. I, the player, had to learn things about the game and build up my sim to complete a goal. That was fun! I would like more goals requiring me to learn and plan. As a counter example, I found realm of magic so easy it was disappointing. I would have absolutely loved needing to find and catch wolf eels or getting some cowplant essence to make powerful spells vs. just going to a shop, which I’m going to do every time, because otherwise I’d feel like my sims are just dumb doing a bunch of extra work to no advantage. Another aspiration I like is the big vampire family one, because there are different ways to accomplish it — it’s giving me freedom as a player to figure out how I’d like to reach a goal. For some more praise, I think the skill trees in Vampires and Get Famous are both well done and I like trading off good things for bad, or at least “more difficult”… they provide customization, differentiation, and strategy all in one! I would love to see more things like that.
I feel like there should be ways to disable certain features that you don't like from a certain pack. For example, if burglars are introduced in the future, have an "enable burglars" button in the options menu. That way, those who want burglars can have them, and those who don't want them don't have to play with them.
[b]Height Differences[/b] I think it would be awesome if height sliders were implemented into CAS to further increase customization/personalization to your sims. After years of playing the sims, it gets a little bland and boring when every sim is always eye-to-eye with each other. (For the exception of kids/toddlers obviously) In addition, height differences could affect how sims interact with each other (Ex: A tall sim could brag about their height... And vise versa) Genetics could affect the height of a sim's height. (If both parents are tall/short, the kid will be tall/short. If one parent is short and the other is tall, it's a 50/50 chance for what the kid's height will be.) While the kid grows, they can moodlets indicating that they're growing or not (feeling confident/happy because they had a growth spurt, or feeling sad/embarrassed because they didn't grow at all) I don't know if this could ever work out at all, but if i could... I'd be absolutely elated! Thanks so much for letting us give feedback!
- more chance cards that don’t tell outcomes (like in get famous)
- remove the free money chance card that ppl have had recently
- more challenging aspirations (island living one is terrible and definitely needs improving) - they should be challenges and not tutorials
- random events, like a random firing from a job because of budget cuts or something
- negative traits as “challenges” like w lots
- colour likes/dislikes should effect sims mood depending on cas items and build items (maybe if 5 or more items of a disliked colour then they get tense/angry, not too low a number or it’ll be too overpowering)
- a chemistry system would make relationships more challenging, could perhaps be included into the likes and dislikes
Hi I’d just really like an option in settings to turn off the strangerville story I love living in the town but it doesn’t always align with my gameplay when I start a new save
To me depth is about the unexpected and consequences as well as pack integration. That not all has to start and end with me. Things like that makes it feel like a living world that has a greater chance to retain interest.
Things that could be unexpected aren't, my sim won't get abducted without me working real hard with an iron focus to let it happen. There are no burglars, no vampire break-ins and nothing, that I can remember at the top of my head, happen without me initiating it. No girlfriend/ boyfriends asking for your sim to move in etc.
I want it to feel like a living world that my sims live in, not a Barbie house I play in.
Now consequences is something that is severely lacking in the game and make everything feel shallow and gives me a feeling of 'what's the point?’. Let me illustrate what I mean:
What’s the point of love day pop ups for teens (and kids)? Just for me to read a fairy tale about what COULD happen to my sim in a different game?
I get lots of popup for teens and they get asked to ask a special someone for the dance or go alone, if I chose ask someone and it goes well (according to the notification text), sounds fun right?
Well, when I check the relationship tab he hasn’t met anyone new/ know any teens even and he is definitely not in love with anyone. It was all just an empty text in an empty game (of consequence and following through).
To actually give us what you say is happening is important and would be a way to add depth. Things like consequence are important.
I’m pretty sure sims working (maybe even kids?) have notifications for work/ school where they say they made a friend or something but did they really? No.
Chance cards that can happen with Get Famous. Say I have fame turned off in the save. My sim goes to work and gets the chance card where it says they will get fame but lose their job if I chose that option.
Hm, I might want to do that actually, that is an unexpected curveball that I might want to continue on with this sim, so I choose that option, because I want some free fame for my sim only to find out that no, your sim did not get any fame because the settings in the save is turned off and now they are out of a job for no reason. EVEN though I chose the option, by choice, to get this ONE sim fame.
What’s the point of that chance card if you are playing with fame off in the save in general?
Why does ALL sims react the same to an upcoming exam? I know plenty of people in real life that has different reactions (if any) before an exam. It’s just strange how they all react the same, and it’s not just exams, but death and everything else actually.
My evil and mean vampire sim gave an elder stranger a death flower arrangement. The elder died but my sim reacted the exact same (crying like crazy) with the same moodlet as the other sims living with the elder. Why?
Why doesn’t sims with different traits react differently? As well as roommates vs a stranger who actually literally just murdered that elder with flowers.
What the point of talent shows in San Myshuno? Nothing happens. It’s just a notification saying it has started and then one that says it has ended regardless if my sim enter or not. Wow.
What’s the point of asking sims if they are a mermaid? The ALL answer the same thing and take a little relationship hit. Lame.
Why is the gifts for the StrangerVille Hero and Get famous ‘famous’ sim the same? Always foul fish, spoiled cupcakes, future cubes or lumps of clay. Lame. More of a chore to clean out the inventory than a celebration.
I’d rather it be random things with longer in between (for one or both). So my famous sim might get a stereo and the next week nothing or something. Just surprise me. Maybe it could be a collectible or something for the Hero, not just rotten and spoiled things, is that how you show your gratitude to me saving your butt?
One of my aliens sims favorite drink it the Plasma Jane which make him nauseous. Now he might be a masochist but that also makes this feature of having a favorite drink come off as haphazard and just shoved in there because something like that was completely missed. These things add up and make the game seem shallow without any depth as there is no reason to this (and seemingly no though behind it).
(Please open up hats for servos! Please! There is only six colors and if you have more servos than that you can’t tell them apart.
If you could individualize them with hats would make a huge difference to me at least.)
Another thing I want to mention, a HUGE thing in fact, is pack integration. The packs you have don’t really add much in combination with each other.
If I have Seasons and Cottage Living for example I should be able to sell flower arrangements to the flower stall, can I? No! Why not?
I think pack integration should be a priority. First of it makes the game feel infinitely deeper because you thought of it and secondly it might make simmers more interested in packs because of these small integrations. As it is now if feels more like separate installments not a one game.
Depth in the game to me is consequence and things being said is happening is ACTUALLY happening. Like sims making a friend or getting fame.
Depth is also diversity, and I’m not talking about skin or culture, but of thoughts, opinions and ideas. Not all sims should react the same to everything. That makes no sense. We are all different and sims reacting the same makes the game feel real shallow. I know the game can’t be as deep and complex with personalities like real human being but TS3 came very close and make every sim unique, why can’t the sims in The Sims 4 feel the same?
I love this franchise and I want TS4 to be the very best it can be.
Hi, I am a long time sims fan (from the first sims, all the spinoffs and now). I think that all the sims games have their own strengths and weaknesses, sims 4 included. First I would love to start off by saying the build mode and the art style are my favourites of all the games! Now the things that I think could be improved game wise:
1) Wants and Fears - I know many people have mentioned this already but it is one of the key things that I think I would love to have in the game again. The whims and aspirations we have now feel very bland and generic. I highly doubt my sims life will be changed if I buy that squeaky toy for their cat. In fact, if I do none of their whims or work towards their aspiration of touring the city, nothing happens. I miss the fears and the breakdowns from sims 2. I loved and dreaded when the doctor would fall from the sky to help my sim or my family sim would rock a sack of flour. I loved accidentally triggering a fear, I loved the fears like having their kids fail a grade or having funny wants like the want to see the ghost of their enemy. In sims 4 it does not feel impactful or personal.
2) Children and Teens - Teens are tiny adults and children are tiny adults in waiting. It feels like from their birth til their young adulthood, everything I am doing is to have fun/success as an adult. Children just go to school, learn skills that will turn into adult skills and sometimes scream about monsters. I would love more things for them to feel like CHILDREN, to make that time in their lives different. Same thing with teenagers. I would love like in the sims 2, for them to run away, sneak out, learn to drive. In the sims 3, have a prom! Sims 4 does feel like a young adult centered game most times. To add on, babies need to not be objects lol. I would love to bathe the baby, get a playmat, change their clothes, have spit-up, even the annoying endless bottles from sims 2.
3) Challenge - Sims 4 seems too easy most times. If I cheat on my partner I just have to tell them a few jokes about penguins and it is all good. Want some spice in my sims life? I have to seek it out. I have to actively try to get bad things to happen to my sims such as deaths, bad luck, getting fired, fights, ect. I would absolutely love to have burglars back in the game. I would love the always looming threat of the grim reaper. Falling meteors, one-sided relationships, my spouse to have an affair that ruins my life. As much as I want to play the sims, I want the sims to play me. To tie back to the age subject, even mid-life crisis! Adults seem boring to me because we are doing the same thing we did as a young adult. I want my sim to randomly hate their job, hate their marriage, move to the islands and buy a sports car.
4) Realism - Simply things like the school buses or work cars. Why does my child just walked into the void instead of almost missing the bus? When they get off the bus with an A+ they just look dead inside. Why is my superstar athlete sim walking to work? Send a lambo at least. The concept of lore and memories as well. Again not to compare but what I loved in the sims 2 was going into an already existing family and piecing together their backstory through their memories. For example, Nervous Subject was one of my all-time favourites because he himself in the beginning wasn't completely interesting but his backstory is! Looking through and piecing together that his parents were Olive Spector and the Grim Reaper?! Amazing. In the sims 4 they are just empty husks with no past, no skills, nothing. Why do the Landgraabs not know anyone in the town that they have lived in their whole lives? Why do they not know their own son?
For now this is all I can think of with the bonus issue for heightened animations for emotions. I love the sims franchise and there are a lot of things the sims 4 does right but gameplay is where it's weaknesses seem to lie. Thank you for giving us an opportunity to address some of our hopes.
I wanna say something first before I start on my suggestions...A lot of simmers say they want challenge, but then when new features and things from packs add something to the gameplay that is a challenge they will either disable it or rarely use it. Examples: NAP, Laundry, and dust systems. A good portion of the simmers that want more challenging gameplay systems almost never play with these enabled.
Which leads to my next point before I give a few suggestions...No matter what you change to make the game more challenging, it needs to be adjustable or have a toggle. Some simmers do enjoy the difficulty level where it is currently. I am one of those simmers, but I definitely wouldn't mind there being some options to add challenge to the gameplay without it being self imposed.
Ok here are my suggestions...
1) An autonomy system that has levels of autonomy.
0 - Sims do nothing unless you tell them to
1 - Sims take care of their basic needs that will kill them if they don't.
2 - Sims take care of their all of their needs
3 - Sims take care of their needs and do aspiration/trait related activities
4 - Sims will live their life without you (including paying bills)
5 - Sims will live their life without you, as well as pick choices when they pop up and actively pursue choices, for example the married in 7 days one, if they pick that option then they will pursue a relationship and marriage within that 7 days. Level 5 autonomy would also allow them to call a repair person autonomously if you have the funds...this would also increase your handiness skill a little bit. If you had a high enough handiness setting (5 at least maybe) you would try and repair items yourself unless you were dazed. Speaking of death, if you had Autonomy 4 or 5 then you would feed any cow plants on your lot, below that and you have a chance to eat the cake (insert evil laughter). Sims that like activities would also do those activities at level 3 autonomy. and sims that like gardening and had a skill of 5 and higher would also not eat the cake, but they may or may not feed the cow plant until gardening skill of 8 or something like that. The numbers can be adjusted and decided if you did it. I do feel like we should be involved in that process if something like this was changed.
With these changes, the player gets to choose how much interaction they need with their sims, which in my opinion allows us to choose how difficult we want the game to be for ourselves.
2) I know this isn't a place for a wish list, but I believe improved babies would also increase the challenge level in game.
Adding new objects for babies to be in. Stroller, changing table, and a crib. You would have to purchase these items. each time you changed the diaper you would pay x amount of money to do so. Strollers would add the ability to take the baby places with you, if the baby starts whining and you don't do anything about it, your sim will become increasingly embarrassed until you do something to find out what is wrong. The crib is just for aesthetics really. There could also be a Crib and changing table combo item as well. This is just the beginning though, because at first if you have a low parenting skill the baby may not take to what you try to do, even if it is the correct thing, feeding, changing, washing, etc. As your parenting skill increases though, taking care of the baby becomes easier, until at the final level of parenting you can do the super parenting skill thing, but you can also see the babies needs (a simplified version that is similar to the bee box, cows, chickens, etc). These effects only happen if you place the baby in a crib, if they are in the bassinet, then they act like the old version of the baby.
This isn't exactly free babies like most people that play want, but it would add some interesting and possibly a bit more challenging, at first, gameplay than the current system. Sorry if this is too much of a wish list thing, it wasn't meant to be that at all, just an idea that would make it more challenging while also making an existing skill more interesting and in depth.
3) Consequences for certain actions.
If you wrong a certain sim, then it shouldn't be easy to make up for that and become friends again within a sim day, but it should be possible. This would depend on your sim and the other sim's Charisma skill. If you both have a high charisma skill then you will be able to fix everything easy like now, but if one of you have a lower Charisma skill, it will be more difficult, even if you have a higher charisma skill. Seems a bit complicated, and I'm horrible at explaining stuff, but basically link the consequences and stuff to Charisma is the main take away alongside giving our sims more consequences for their actions.
4) The ability to toggle on/off the help features like the pop ups that have a chance at giving extra money.
5) Adding an option to increase or decrease bills and costs of bills should be a setting. Costs of items should also have a slider too. This way you can change or or the other. I've heard several times that some of the items need adjusting anyway, mainly lowered. Maybe have some of the items cost per use and sims will autonomously use them, like toilet paper if it is beside the toilet would be used and that would go on the bills as item expenses, same with moping, it wouldn't be a lot per moping, but still, it would change how some people play the game.
6) The sickness system needs to be changed some. Make the habits of your sims increase or decrease the chance of you getting sick and the severity of how sick you get and how easily it is to spread the sickness to others. Maybe not the best addition currently.
These probably aren't the biggest changes, but I think some of them could increase the difficulty level and add some fun and depth to different things in the game and different packs. The options for them are the most important to me, so people can choose how challenging they want their game.
Comments
* NPCs taking initiative in relationships - NPCs should ask to be in a relationship, propose, break up, divorce, ask to just be friends, etc. based on their current relationship level, their traits (e.g. non-committal), their sentiments with the other sim, and a small element of randomness.
* When inviting your sim out, NPCs should give realistic options. Asking someone to come over shouldn't only mean, "drop everything and get here right now". Your sim should be able to say, "I'll be there right away/I'll be there in an hour/this evening/let's hang out tomorrow".
* Townies should only very rarely spawn outside their home worlds, instead of being stalked by Mortimer Goth and Judith Ward everywhere you go
Additionally, there should be a memory system to compliment the sentiment system so that major life events have long-term consequences.
I only have a couple of specific suggestions regarding adding challenge:
There would be a lifetime goal (possibly more than one) tied to each trait in the game. When aging into a young adult your sim would get to pick their lifetime goal based on the traits they have. This would make the traits more meaningful, but also give you some options to choose from.
I have always felt that normal lifespan is too short whereas the long is just too long. Having limited time is one way to add challenge to the game and not finding a comfortable lifespan to play with has removed this challenge from me. Could we please have a new option between normal and long - or custom lifespans?
Updated with Werewolf Diaries (1)
that through a tag generates the townies that you chose, I would love for this to be implemented in the base game. I want to be able to control which inhabitants are in my city. I would also like to restrict random visits between worlds
Elvira Lapida running at 9.00 am in Brindleton Bay? I do not think so. Has no sense. More challenge in relationships, you can marry and divorce a person in just one day and the next day remarry and divorce... This does not make sense.
I’ve had so much fun brainstorming ways that I think the game could be more challenging. Here are some of my ideas:
Whims
I miss whims! It would be wonderful if they came back and were tied to personality traits. Whims based gameplay is a fun challenge to let “the sims” choose their own life. Especially when it comes to choosing partners, having children, career decisions. I loved how in the past your sims rolled wants to get certain jobs based on their traits.
The game can go in unexpected ways when you let your sims be in charge.
Romance:
Chemistry system
I wish my sims had some way to indicate to me who they prefer to get together with instead of just me choosing at random.
( I’m still going to probably choose for them, but I will consider their wishes. It would be nice if there was some challenge involved. Haha. )
One sided relationships
* The ability to have one sided crushes.
* The “confess crush” option would be a way to see if the other person decides to reciprocate (maybe like a chance card), and if they don’t it could cause a sad buff.
* One sided relationships could also apply to friendships/enemies. Maybe Nancy Landgraab brought your sim rancid fruitcake during the welcome wagon event that gave them food poisoning and she doesn’t know that they will forever secretly seethe when she waves as she passes their house.
Online dating
* You could be catfished (or catfish others if your diabolical) or someone dreamy could show up.
* Other singles (or people masquerading as singles) around town could be available to meet up with too.
Money:
More Ways to spend it:
I love how the simple living lot trait makes you pay for groceries, that definitely helps realism, but my uber wealthy families get boring to play with all of that money just burning a hole in their pockets.
Some ideas include
* More outlandishly priced furniture (maybe a restoration hardware type pack)
* Ability to purchase multiple homes
* Private school for children
* Hiring personal trainers to come to their house or meet them at the gym.
* The truly wealthy and famous could hire body guards/security for your house (in case burglars ever come, gotta protect all of that money somehow!)
Loan system:
For my families that are just starting out it would be awesome to have a loan system so they can have a house to move into straight away, but still have the challenge of having to pay the money back instead of just using motherlode.
More business types for gameplay challenges:
I’m sorry if this counts as “requests for content” but I feel like running a business adds so much challenge to my game. Some ideas:
Hotels/beds and breakfasts:
Lately I’ve had a blast running my own quaint bed and breakfast in Henford with combining households for “guests” that I cook for and clean up after and I’ve been cheating money at the end of the week when they “leave”. it would be great if running a B&B or a hotel could be a feature in the game along with letting my other sims frequent them while on vacation.
Salons
I also like to build salons for my stylists sims to work at. Right now I have to chase NPCs down the street to get them to let me give them a makeover and cheat the money afterwards. Not exactly a great business practice :)
It would be great if these were functional with other sims either being able to visit to get a new look or a manicure.
Movie theaters:
I love to create theaters using the items from movie hangout, but the venue does not function very well because no one sits and watches the movies. Lost Dogs Journey Home is on, no one wants to talk about grilled cheese right now Bob Pancakes!
I wouldn’t necessarily want to run one, but it would be great as a venue for my sims to visit.
Community lots:
As you can see, I love making community lots with multiple functions: restaurants, shops, cafes, gyms, but it’s hard when I have to pick between which one will be functional. I wish there was a way to have multiple things function at the same time.
Family play:
More group activities:
Love that you added group cooking! Thank you!!! I think it would be great to have even more ways for sims to play together. All age groups could benefit from have more interactions with each other and their families. I get so sad when sims have to ride in boats all by themselves. Lol It would be awesome to have family boat rides, jogging together, hiking together (anywhere), more games together, more mentoring each other, throwing baseballs together, etc.
And now for the expected cliche ones:
Babies:
In my opinion, babies bring no depth or challenge or warm fuzzy feelings to game play currently. It would be awesome to release them from their bassinets and make them mobile (with real cribs, and bouncers to set them in while you cook, and changing tables etc.) while bringing some of the sweet and sour aspects of being new parents trying to figure out how to take care of their new baby. It would be fun if there were different types of babies too: good sleepers, bad sleepers, happy babies, not happy babies, you get the idea!
While we are at it…
More lifetime events for teens and children:
To make the experience of being young feel different from being an adult: going to school dances, slumber parties, learning to drive, ability for teens to sneak out, etc.
Toggles
Lastly, If you ever do story progression- please have it be a toggle. I’ve been playing my main save since 2015 and I would hate if chaos broke out in my carefully crafted world. :)
and while we are toggling things- it would be awesome to toggle supernaturals (and dust bunnies) too. Some saves I play in are super realistic while others are not.
Thank you so much!!! I can’t wait to see what the Sims team comes up with in the future.
• For a life simulator like the Sims, I would associate "challenge" with "randomness," i.e. events that occur outside of my direction and have the potential to leave both minor and major impacts on my gameplay.
"How would this change your current experience of The Sims 4?"
• Family gameplay is my go-to style of play. I create one sim, find them a marriage prospect, and progress to new generations while waiting for the older to pass on. It tends to become very repetitive, and most of my enjoyment comes from having my brain engaged with keeping up with their needs, skills, and school/work requirements. Being randomly dealt challenges that disrupt this gameplay pattern would create opportunities for me to play in ways that I wouldn't usually consider.
"What specific areas of the game would you like to see more depth in?"
• Specifically, I find it too difficult for sims to die. Sims almost never die from any cause other than old age without direct player intervention. A sim who's just been electrocuted will have a big moodlet right at the front of the list warning that they'll die if they attempt any other repairs before it runs out. A sim who catches on fire will self-extinguish without player input - and often the fire will just harmlessly burn out on its own. Overheating sims must be directed back into the sauna repeatedly. Illnesses are tied exclusively to Get to Work and are essentially all harmless cosmetic changes with a small uncomfortable moodlet that clear up immediately with medicine that can be obtained instantly from computers. Emotional deaths require such insanely high emotion values that they're barely possible to trigger even with pointed player intervention. The cow plant can't kill a sim unless they take its bait twice. Ghost sims can be invited to the household and resume their regular routines or be revived through a variety of methods, so it would be nice to have options to make death a more tangible presence in regular gameplay.
I've focused a lot on death here because it's what I feel to be the most frustratingly easy part of the game, but it would be great to have a random chance for a wide variety of negative hardships to break the gameplay loop and create more memorable events and experiences.
To me the most that needs to truly be updated is the lack of 'story progression'; hopefully one you've heard before.
I know the 'sentiments' added to the game seemed like a positive direction the game was in, but to me they are sort of failing; because the sentiments just vanish, and then pop up again EXACTLY the same when I have another meet up with the same sim.
Sentiments to me are supposed to be more like actual memories that are long term, and last for a lifetime, and come back to pay off like a chekhovs gun.
An example why I was playing the game: Cassandra came over for a party at that Ito kid's house and she messed up by setting herself on fire; I LOVED that, my sims Oliver ended up 'saving her' and they shared that sentiment. How amazing would it have been if that actually STUCK in there. Maybe Cassandra could be more fearful or I thought in the future if these teen sims were older they could have a special connection or bond and would be able to 'do something' with that.....but the sentiment just went 'poof'...nothing else but a temporary little description...what's the point of that sentiment then?
Shouldn't sentiments be closer to 'memories'? lol In the sims 2 it was pretty basic; 'bad childhood' 'got pregnant' 'had baby' 'got divorced', but to me even that was more meaningful; because they STUCK and in a simple way defined certain behaviours in the sims. Lilith definitely became more rotten after having a terrible childhood. The sentiments seem to mean nothing like that in the Sims 4.
I think the MC command center mod might adjust it, but honestly I think it should be in game already without me trying to figure out which mod does the trick; the vanishing relationships, even if the sims were bloody friends. it is IMMERSION BREAKING and kind of makes me really sad and just quit the game.
Also actual events are really overkill in a bad way; I don't like these lot challenges simply because to me I don't want the same 'haunted' doll to randomly pop up again and again and again and the same same ghosties; it's like the same trees you cut in minecraft and really I don't like it one bit. Frequency of things like 🐸🐸🐸🐸 or dolls appearing can go down, instead more diversity, less frequency.
Aspirations could be less like tutorials, because you've seen it after playing with one sim.
The lifestyles are nice, but could definitely be tweaked; my sim had a single and loving it lifestyle and then got married and still had it, I mean do I really need to remove that myself? LOL Sorry but I like play pretend but not to that degree.
Weddings and parties- In real life both partners would be able to invite all their family and friends to their wedding ( I would extend this to parties in general), in game the person scheduling the event only has access to their own relationship panel, not their partner's or the rest of the household. If my sim is hiring a caterer there should be a menu option like the one we have for Dine Out or just have three different menus dependent on budget (I might want my rich sims to have lobster or beef wellington but maybe for another wedding I want to serve the guests pizza.) Wedding cakes should be included, I always forget that cake is under "cook" and not "bake." Wedding events have not had any significant innovation since Sims 2, it would be nice to have a wedding party with best man/maid of honor or main attendant, ring bearer, etc. More romantic interactions like slow dancing, so miss it especially at weddings. More party options like bridal and baby showers, bachelor/bachelorette parties.
I agree with more autonomous interactions, like an objection at a wedding or maybe the partner gets cold feet at the alter. I think big events should affect other sims in the household and have lingering consequences, for example a divorced father remarries and the kids do not like the new step-mom. If the couple go on to have a baby maybe one or more of the kids is jealous or afraid of losing their father, they seek out his attention more or want nothing to do with their new sibling.
Interactions between sims should be reflective of their relationship or given mood, I will use pregnancy as an example. I think the pregnancy announcement exchange should differ depending on the other sim. Telling your partner about a pregnancy should either be more joyous (tears, strong embrace, excitement, etc) or nerve wracking (maybe sim has cheated, partner does not want kids and is not excited, gets visible upset or mad). As of right now the sharing of a new pregnancy is the same for the partner, siblings and the NPC sitting next to your sim at the bar. It is not that realistic.
Consistency with emotions, if my sim is picking a fight with another, maybe a love rival or an annoying next door neighbor they should not stop and have friendly chit-chat between interactions, there needs to be more of a build-up of emotions where things start to progressively heat up and there is tension.
More random events that affect your sim like burglars, bad storms destroying properties, loss of income or having certain sims that turn up to cause havoc (the person your sim is having an affair with shows up to tell your partner or your in-law who is difficult wants to stay for the weekend, your kid invites several friends for a slumber party and they are creating a mess, asking you to order pizza, stay up late, etc.)
Pack integration - I have Dine Out, Get Famous and Eco Lifestyle. The following are examples and not meant to be a wish list. I would love to have a sim who goes to auditions during the day (It would be great if we could prepare for auditions and have them be a real game event versus sims leaving the lot) and waits tables at night (would love to see sims be able to work at various lots - yoga instructor, chef, mixologist, waiter). Have the Eco Lifestyle apartment lot be one that we can place anywhere - a struggling actor would probably live in an apartment with roommates versus a house.
Also some Quality of Life changes - ability to lock in hair and makeup for outfits, be able to adjust lighting without a sim present on lot, toggle off weather effects for building. More lots for building, I think a refreshing of some maps would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for the opportunity to voice our concerns and thoughts.
Other responses from sims, more stuff in the game to drive more story. Maybe sims autonomously spread rumors if they witness cheating happening.
[*] A Create a World Tool. Making own worlds and editing existing ones is a basic feature since the Sims 2. Without one we will lose all, especially the day when the game is not developed any longer and has to stand on its own feet.
[*] Social autonomy. Yes we need more drama, random events, evil and mean stuff etc but all of this is useless without social autonomy. The sims have to start the drama on their own. Like people with a personality. At the moment they are just pupets and we have to force them to do anything.
[*] basic every day animations. Things like lying on the couch to read or sitting on the floor to chat
[*] Game features have to be available in all worlds. We still don't have stray pets in all worlds. And this is just an excample. That is a no go. Every world is boring at the end because it has just this one game feature. And if you don't want to give it to us then give us a CAW tool so we can add it ourselves.
[*] A bunch of other small things:
I want the missing supernaturals from the previous games.
Horses even if the worlds are not open because they are members of my family and i don't want to play the next generation of this familys
without my horses.
Fully CAStable and flyable Dragon Pets, Kyuubis and Unicorns.
[/list]
A couple of things come to mind when thinking of improving this game:
- Relationships in the sims are often one-sided and initiated by the player themselves. I liked in older sims games that you would have other sims who are interested and call you or leave roses outside the door after a date.
- Death in the sims 4 NEEDS to be more frequent and easily achieved. In ts4 i struggle to have any sims die of anything other than old age. I want the risk of things! It's nearly impossible to accidentaly lose a sim lest you try very very hard. This could also implement illnesses from Get to Work to play a bigger role.
- Speaking of get to work, id love to see more abductions, especially from using the telescope! Id also love for players who have both strangerville and Get to work to see a higher chance of abductions, similar to strangetown in ts2. I really do wish you would implement packs to work with each other better. I understand some simmers wont have all packs, but thats not a reason why packs should work so little together as they do now.
- I really need a pet revamp. It feels as though you released pets and said thats it, done. They need to be more implemented into gameplay! if you wont make them playable, please consider thinking of other packs again like cottage living, and think of how we could have farm dogs, cats who play around with the chickens etc!
- I find it strange you guys dont think more about packs working together once u release packs. We need the newer skills as extra classes in university, knitting or using crochet to make cat/dog sweaters etc. Id love to see you get creative in how packs can work together. Some people not having the packs is not an excuse when you look at ts3 or ts2, its a fair think to ask i think.
- Id also beg for more things in your packs. all of them. I understand the other sims games were different times but frankly i dont see how you can ask so much for packs that are so buggy even on release. And thats even with a lack of gameplay and stuff in the pack for that price anyways. Sorry to be so blunt. I am a bit upset at where sims is at right now. I dont understand why all gameplay is a dlc- its a simulation game so we need gameplay!
- Id also formally ask for burglars
- Id love a carpool to come pick up kids for school, and similarly a car to pick up adults to work. It adds so much immersion!
Some things I would love done to help with the game
When your sim gets asked on a date I would love for the other sim to pay not your played sim.
If the hospital could have a few other employees. The doctor is usually not the person that would handle patients from start to finish, I guess unless it's a very small practice in real life.
House loans would be awesome. Being able to get a little bigger house for starting play without cheats would be nice. It would add more money having to come out each week and I think that would help with sims getting too much money and the game getting dull.
I think another good challenge could be (and players could opt out if they like it the original way) but to have unplanned pregnancy. I think it's a lot funner sometimes to go oops. (I'm on console and can't have mods)
Not a trait, but kind of the same if you can make it so your sim gets skills slower or to just adjust it so they are naturally good or bad at some skills. Like my sims can program a computer quick but can only draw stick figures.
And maybe on the health side of things. D a generational sickness. If your parent had llamapox you may also get llamapox. Something that isn't a real life scary illness but that could make your sim have to change something about them.
That's all I can really think about at them moment for challenges.
Thank you so much for reading all of these. Lots of good ideas for sure.
Maybe there should be a payment when you try to travel that varies depending on how far that other world is supposed to be, maybe you should have to stay in that world for a specific amount of time and have to stay on one of the rental lots...
I think it would add a lot to the depth of the game and add a layer of challenge --> Imagine this scenario: my sim's dream is to visit Sulani, but she's from Willow Creek and doesn't have a lot of money, I would actually have to save up and budget her travel there cause like a "ticket" would be a $1000 and then she has to stay for at least 2 days and pay for a rental lot.
Adding to that it would be cool if townies could stay in their respective world if we're not playing with them.
The Sims Themselves
We really need an update to traits and aspirations. There aren’t many “bad” traits and the aspirations that came in packs are way too easy, plus there aren’t many of them. We should be able to choose 5 traits instead of just 3. More “bad” and negative traits or traits that add challenge to our gameplay like absent minded, neurotic, can’t stand art, hydrophobic, never nude, and unstable. I fell like there should be more aspirations (from packs, base game is fine) and they should be harder. At least make the ones that we already have be harder, like Spellcraft & Sorcery from RoM. The final milestone “Wand-earful Spellcaster” only requires you to get to Rank 5 and know 10 different spells, but I think it should require you to learn all spells. Personally I think the aspirations should have just one list of things to accomplish that could be a bit simple or extraordinary. However I do think the ability to pick another aspirations after completing one is a great addition and shouldn’t change. Lastly I want to talk about the sims’ needs. I think the comfort need should comeback and a hydration need for drinking water and liquids should be added. I always feel bad making my sims stand for hours painting, playing instruments, and gardening so I think adding a hydration need would be very nice as it would give us something else to manage and take care of through the day. It should also go down during rabbit hole jobs, some more so than others (physical jobs like the athletic career more so than a sit down job like the business career). A hydration need would be similar in that it would be something else for us to keep track of to keep our sims from dying.
Schooling
I always thought school for child and teen sims was easy and I’ve always wanted something more detailed and difficult. The projects from parenthood were a great addition! We need more of that. Book reports, history paper, essays, speeches, presentations, test days that to be studied for, the works! It would be nice if we could pick certain classes for our students and they had to go to school with a project like a painting or wood sculpture or any of the other mentioned projects on certain days. Adding honor and AP classes so that our students have more homework and projects than normal would be really fun and if some players find the extra work annoying it can be for only the harder classes.
Skills
There are so many buffs to speed up skill gain its kinda crazy and definitely gotten out of hand. An easy fix would be to just put an option in settings to slow the base skill gain for players that want it. Something like 50% would do. Also adding a cleaning skill and more things to clean would be good and a simple way to add more challenge to everyday life. Like sweeping, making beds, cleaning pools and rugs, wiping down tables and maybe even mowing the lawn? But that might be under gardening... Anyways, when it comes to cleaning rugs, sweeping floors, and cleaning tables I think sims removing whatever’s in the area they’re trying to clean with the “swipe” animation would do just fine. Then they can get to work! The lower the skill the slower it is to clean things and the more likely you are to screw up some cleanings (like the pool). Also, for certain skills I think requiring equipment and resources might be a good idea. Like how painting has you “purchase” supplies when you first start a painting, more skills should require things like that. Like with fishing, you should have to buy a fishing pole and it might break while trying to reel one in. Or with instruments you have to tune them occasionally and buy things like strings for the violin and guitar, and resin for the violin bow and it also has a chance of popping. However, for other skills, resources should be required. Like woodworking/handiness should require wood, mixology should require you to get different colored or flavored juice and nectar, and writing should require you to gather inspiration for themes like the eurekas for the scientists career or like the poems and plays that Bards had to write in The Sims Medieval. I want this for woodworking and writing because I feel like these are easy ways to make money so this would add some challenge to them. With mixology, its just a added some gameplay. Gardening is one of the best skills in the sims games imo and I think ts4 has the best implementation or it, however, it can be improved. Not needing to water your plants every single day is nice but not water them for days on end is ridiculous. There needs to be some balancing there. Irl plants can actually get diseases and I think that would be a great addition. Its another thing to keep track of and will make us stay on top or our plants! Also why do fish not have specific bait anymore? That adds way more challenge because in order to get certain fish you might need to get another fish which requires you to get some other fish which would require you to get a specific fruit. This was really fun to figure out in past games so I’d be nice to bring back here.
Jobs, Money, Bills, and Services
Many people, including myself, have complained about the amount of money given to us through the careers and while it would be nice to have the salaries adjusted, I think a better and more fun way to fix this is to just give us more things to pay for! Services specifically like daycare, healthcare if we have Get To Work, after school college prep/cram school for Discover University, and private and boarding school. In real life music and tv subscription services are popular (or at least common…) so adding some to the game could be fun. Also adding bills for tv, internet, garbage, cell phone, to the game would make it more stressful when the bills are due. This is also something that could be adjusted in settings or with the lot challenges. I also think the option to make degrees a requirement for certain levels of certain jobs would be nice.
The Potential Of Cars
I’m not sure of what the sims team thinks of cars in ts4 but I know a lot of simmers think of cars in the game as useless because there’s no open world, but thats only surface level thinking of what cars can bring to the game! Irl, car require gas and maintenance otherwise they breakdown and cant be used until fixed or may just need to be scrapped all together. If cars were added they should require gas or electricity, need maintenance like engine tune ups, oil changes, transmission and power steering fluid changes, and brake repairs. Many people rely on cars to get to and from work so going too long without a check up or letting problems go unrepaired will cause your sim to be late to work.
Police/Consequences
The game is too safe! And my sims can get away with too much stuff lol. Our sims should get arrested if they get caught stealing, start fights with other sims, or get caught hacking. Also I think our sims should have “records” and if they have too many bad encounters with the law they can get fired and not be able to get certain jobs. Like if you’ve been caught stealing, they may not want you at the space station and around all the expensive equipment. Adding crime would be cool too. Like burglars and if cars are added you can have car jackers or people who only steal tires and radios. It would also be cool to have some evil criminals that just want to make other sims live miserable like coming over to constantly kick trash cans, break items, and placing pranks like whoopee cushions, spraying sinks, graffiti artists, teepeeing, and calling you to ask questions like if your refrigerator is running. Just smaller, annoying crimes but nothing too crazy or violent. Lot challenges and traits would be perfect for this because you can place your house in a high or low crime area.
Sorry that was so long, but like I said, I have been thinking about this for a while now and I got a lot of ideas lol. If something was confusing feel free to ask me everyone!
One thing I feel very strongly about is that “more difficulty” shouldn’t mean “more/harder time management” — grinding needs with a large family has never been the main appeal of the game for me. For me, a deeper game with more difficulty comes down to consequences, in and out of relationships, differentiating sims and their relationships, and giving goals to the player that require some strategy.
Consequences outside of relationships
The tuning would be important here, but I think there should be a chance for random bad things to happen — or even just unexpected things. Bad days at work that lose performance or worse, something causes your sim to not be able to improve relationships for a day, a physical injury means your sim needs a day off work or worse, your sim goes to work but comes back to work from home because the internet was out at the office, snow days, danger and death etc. Right now, the worst thing I get are small performance gains.
Consequences inside of relationships
I will say that the single most disappointing experience I’ve ever had in the Sims 4 was when something bad happened in my game that upset me, but my sims were completely over it in 2 sims days, because my sims felt completely disconnected from me and their story. Now I’m a storyteller so I ended up having an author sim process his feelings through book titles for a long time afterwards, but in the reality of the game … totally didn’t care at all about what would be a devastating life event for anyone but a sim. I would like sims to be upset about divorce and death! I would like them to have an opinion about their sister-in-law flirting with them without having to be caught by their sibling! I would like at least a chance for longlasting consequences… I know lifestyles are dlc, but as an example … maybe a sim could have a chance % to abruptly lose the adrenaline junkie lifestyle if, like, their kid died, or to become a workaholic if their spouse was cheating.
Different types of relationships
I really enjoy Parenthood because it makes me actively work on guardian/child relationships and different outcomes are possible. I would like more of that, with more types of relationships. I think it would add a lot of depth if I could have siblings who have tons of fun together but whose deep conversations always go wrong, or a couple who is all passion and impulse vs. one with lots of trust and communication. Just… having things to work toward in relationships between sims, that then allows me to differentiate those relationships.
(Also I would love the return of fatal flaws from medieval. Or something like them. Not sure where to fit that in, but something not wholly positive to differentiate sims and influence longterm storytelling.)
Goals for the player
I like working towards things with my sims as a player. I’ve liked getting all the fish as part of an aspiration, for example, since that required learning where I can catch all the fish, leveling up handiness so I can access all the fish, etc. I, the player, had to learn things about the game and build up my sim to complete a goal. That was fun! I would like more goals requiring me to learn and plan. As a counter example, I found realm of magic so easy it was disappointing. I would have absolutely loved needing to find and catch wolf eels or getting some cowplant essence to make powerful spells vs. just going to a shop, which I’m going to do every time, because otherwise I’d feel like my sims are just dumb doing a bunch of extra work to no advantage. Another aspiration I like is the big vampire family one, because there are different ways to accomplish it — it’s giving me freedom as a player to figure out how I’d like to reach a goal. For some more praise, I think the skill trees in Vampires and Get Famous are both well done and I like trading off good things for bad, or at least “more difficult”… they provide customization, differentiation, and strategy all in one! I would love to see more things like that.
I think it would be awesome if height sliders were implemented into CAS to further increase customization/personalization to your sims. After years of playing the sims, it gets a little bland and boring when every sim is always eye-to-eye with each other. (For the exception of kids/toddlers obviously)
In addition, height differences could affect how sims interact with each other (Ex: A tall sim could brag about their height... And vise versa)
Genetics could affect the height of a sim's height. (If both parents are tall/short, the kid will be tall/short. If one parent is short and the other is tall, it's a 50/50 chance for what the kid's height will be.)
While the kid grows, they can moodlets indicating that they're growing or not (feeling confident/happy because they had a growth spurt, or feeling sad/embarrassed because they didn't grow at all)
I don't know if this could ever work out at all, but if i could... I'd be absolutely elated! Thanks so much for letting us give feedback!
- remove the free money chance card that ppl have had recently
- more challenging aspirations (island living one is terrible and definitely needs improving) - they should be challenges and not tutorials
- random events, like a random firing from a job because of budget cuts or something
- negative traits as “challenges” like w lots
- colour likes/dislikes should effect sims mood depending on cas items and build items (maybe if 5 or more items of a disliked colour then they get tense/angry, not too low a number or it’ll be too overpowering)
- a chemistry system would make relationships more challenging, could perhaps be included into the likes and dislikes
Things that could be unexpected aren't, my sim won't get abducted without me working real hard with an iron focus to let it happen. There are no burglars, no vampire break-ins and nothing, that I can remember at the top of my head, happen without me initiating it. No girlfriend/ boyfriends asking for your sim to move in etc.
I want it to feel like a living world that my sims live in, not a Barbie house I play in.
Now consequences is something that is severely lacking in the game and make everything feel shallow and gives me a feeling of 'what's the point?’. Let me illustrate what I mean:
What’s the point of love day pop ups for teens (and kids)? Just for me to read a fairy tale about what COULD happen to my sim in a different game?
I get lots of popup for teens and they get asked to ask a special someone for the dance or go alone, if I chose ask someone and it goes well (according to the notification text), sounds fun right?
Well, when I check the relationship tab he hasn’t met anyone new/ know any teens even and he is definitely not in love with anyone. It was all just an empty text in an empty game (of consequence and following through).
To actually give us what you say is happening is important and would be a way to add depth. Things like consequence are important.
I’m pretty sure sims working (maybe even kids?) have notifications for work/ school where they say they made a friend or something but did they really? No.
Chance cards that can happen with Get Famous. Say I have fame turned off in the save. My sim goes to work and gets the chance card where it says they will get fame but lose their job if I chose that option.
Hm, I might want to do that actually, that is an unexpected curveball that I might want to continue on with this sim, so I choose that option, because I want some free fame for my sim only to find out that no, your sim did not get any fame because the settings in the save is turned off and now they are out of a job for no reason. EVEN though I chose the option, by choice, to get this ONE sim fame.
What’s the point of that chance card if you are playing with fame off in the save in general?
Why does ALL sims react the same to an upcoming exam? I know plenty of people in real life that has different reactions (if any) before an exam. It’s just strange how they all react the same, and it’s not just exams, but death and everything else actually.
My evil and mean vampire sim gave an elder stranger a death flower arrangement. The elder died but my sim reacted the exact same (crying like crazy) with the same moodlet as the other sims living with the elder. Why?
Why doesn’t sims with different traits react differently? As well as roommates vs a stranger who actually literally just murdered that elder with flowers.
What the point of talent shows in San Myshuno? Nothing happens. It’s just a notification saying it has started and then one that says it has ended regardless if my sim enter or not. Wow.
What’s the point of asking sims if they are a mermaid? The ALL answer the same thing and take a little relationship hit. Lame.
Why is the gifts for the StrangerVille Hero and Get famous ‘famous’ sim the same? Always foul fish, spoiled cupcakes, future cubes or lumps of clay. Lame. More of a chore to clean out the inventory than a celebration.
I’d rather it be random things with longer in between (for one or both). So my famous sim might get a stereo and the next week nothing or something. Just surprise me. Maybe it could be a collectible or something for the Hero, not just rotten and spoiled things, is that how you show your gratitude to me saving your butt?
One of my aliens sims favorite drink it the Plasma Jane which make him nauseous. Now he might be a masochist but that also makes this feature of having a favorite drink come off as haphazard and just shoved in there because something like that was completely missed. These things add up and make the game seem shallow without any depth as there is no reason to this (and seemingly no though behind it).
(Please open up hats for servos! Please! There is only six colors and if you have more servos than that you can’t tell them apart.
If you could individualize them with hats would make a huge difference to me at least.)
Another thing I want to mention, a HUGE thing in fact, is pack integration. The packs you have don’t really add much in combination with each other.
If I have Seasons and Cottage Living for example I should be able to sell flower arrangements to the flower stall, can I? No! Why not?
I think pack integration should be a priority. First of it makes the game feel infinitely deeper because you thought of it and secondly it might make simmers more interested in packs because of these small integrations. As it is now if feels more like separate installments not a one game.
Depth in the game to me is consequence and things being said is happening is ACTUALLY happening. Like sims making a friend or getting fame.
Depth is also diversity, and I’m not talking about skin or culture, but of thoughts, opinions and ideas. Not all sims should react the same to everything. That makes no sense. We are all different and sims reacting the same makes the game feel real shallow. I know the game can’t be as deep and complex with personalities like real human being but TS3 came very close and make every sim unique, why can’t the sims in The Sims 4 feel the same?
I love this franchise and I want TS4 to be the very best it can be.
1) Wants and Fears - I know many people have mentioned this already but it is one of the key things that I think I would love to have in the game again. The whims and aspirations we have now feel very bland and generic. I highly doubt my sims life will be changed if I buy that squeaky toy for their cat. In fact, if I do none of their whims or work towards their aspiration of touring the city, nothing happens. I miss the fears and the breakdowns from sims 2. I loved and dreaded when the doctor would fall from the sky to help my sim or my family sim would rock a sack of flour. I loved accidentally triggering a fear, I loved the fears like having their kids fail a grade or having funny wants like the want to see the ghost of their enemy. In sims 4 it does not feel impactful or personal.
2) Children and Teens - Teens are tiny adults and children are tiny adults in waiting. It feels like from their birth til their young adulthood, everything I am doing is to have fun/success as an adult. Children just go to school, learn skills that will turn into adult skills and sometimes scream about monsters. I would love more things for them to feel like CHILDREN, to make that time in their lives different. Same thing with teenagers. I would love like in the sims 2, for them to run away, sneak out, learn to drive. In the sims 3, have a prom! Sims 4 does feel like a young adult centered game most times. To add on, babies need to not be objects lol. I would love to bathe the baby, get a playmat, change their clothes, have spit-up, even the annoying endless bottles from sims 2.
3) Challenge - Sims 4 seems too easy most times. If I cheat on my partner I just have to tell them a few jokes about penguins and it is all good. Want some spice in my sims life? I have to seek it out. I have to actively try to get bad things to happen to my sims such as deaths, bad luck, getting fired, fights, ect. I would absolutely love to have burglars back in the game. I would love the always looming threat of the grim reaper. Falling meteors, one-sided relationships, my spouse to have an affair that ruins my life. As much as I want to play the sims, I want the sims to play me. To tie back to the age subject, even mid-life crisis! Adults seem boring to me because we are doing the same thing we did as a young adult. I want my sim to randomly hate their job, hate their marriage, move to the islands and buy a sports car.
4) Realism - Simply things like the school buses or work cars. Why does my child just walked into the void instead of almost missing the bus? When they get off the bus with an A+ they just look dead inside. Why is my superstar athlete sim walking to work? Send a lambo at least. The concept of lore and memories as well. Again not to compare but what I loved in the sims 2 was going into an already existing family and piecing together their backstory through their memories. For example, Nervous Subject was one of my all-time favourites because he himself in the beginning wasn't completely interesting but his backstory is! Looking through and piecing together that his parents were Olive Spector and the Grim Reaper?! Amazing. In the sims 4 they are just empty husks with no past, no skills, nothing. Why do the Landgraabs not know anyone in the town that they have lived in their whole lives? Why do they not know their own son?
For now this is all I can think of with the bonus issue for heightened animations for emotions. I love the sims franchise and there are a lot of things the sims 4 does right but gameplay is where it's weaknesses seem to lie. Thank you for giving us an opportunity to address some of our hopes.
Which leads to my next point before I give a few suggestions...No matter what you change to make the game more challenging, it needs to be adjustable or have a toggle. Some simmers do enjoy the difficulty level where it is currently. I am one of those simmers, but I definitely wouldn't mind there being some options to add challenge to the gameplay without it being self imposed.
Ok here are my suggestions...
1) An autonomy system that has levels of autonomy.
0 - Sims do nothing unless you tell them to
1 - Sims take care of their basic needs that will kill them if they don't.
2 - Sims take care of their all of their needs
3 - Sims take care of their needs and do aspiration/trait related activities
4 - Sims will live their life without you (including paying bills)
5 - Sims will live their life without you, as well as pick choices when they pop up and actively pursue choices, for example the married in 7 days one, if they pick that option then they will pursue a relationship and marriage within that 7 days. Level 5 autonomy would also allow them to call a repair person autonomously if you have the funds...this would also increase your handiness skill a little bit. If you had a high enough handiness setting (5 at least maybe) you would try and repair items yourself unless you were dazed. Speaking of death, if you had Autonomy 4 or 5 then you would feed any cow plants on your lot, below that and you have a chance to eat the cake (insert evil laughter). Sims that like activities would also do those activities at level 3 autonomy. and sims that like gardening and had a skill of 5 and higher would also not eat the cake, but they may or may not feed the cow plant until gardening skill of 8 or something like that. The numbers can be adjusted and decided if you did it. I do feel like we should be involved in that process if something like this was changed.
With these changes, the player gets to choose how much interaction they need with their sims, which in my opinion allows us to choose how difficult we want the game to be for ourselves.
2) I know this isn't a place for a wish list, but I believe improved babies would also increase the challenge level in game.
Adding new objects for babies to be in. Stroller, changing table, and a crib. You would have to purchase these items. each time you changed the diaper you would pay x amount of money to do so. Strollers would add the ability to take the baby places with you, if the baby starts whining and you don't do anything about it, your sim will become increasingly embarrassed until you do something to find out what is wrong. The crib is just for aesthetics really. There could also be a Crib and changing table combo item as well. This is just the beginning though, because at first if you have a low parenting skill the baby may not take to what you try to do, even if it is the correct thing, feeding, changing, washing, etc. As your parenting skill increases though, taking care of the baby becomes easier, until at the final level of parenting you can do the super parenting skill thing, but you can also see the babies needs (a simplified version that is similar to the bee box, cows, chickens, etc). These effects only happen if you place the baby in a crib, if they are in the bassinet, then they act like the old version of the baby.
This isn't exactly free babies like most people that play want, but it would add some interesting and possibly a bit more challenging, at first, gameplay than the current system. Sorry if this is too much of a wish list thing, it wasn't meant to be that at all, just an idea that would make it more challenging while also making an existing skill more interesting and in depth.
3) Consequences for certain actions.
If you wrong a certain sim, then it shouldn't be easy to make up for that and become friends again within a sim day, but it should be possible. This would depend on your sim and the other sim's Charisma skill. If you both have a high charisma skill then you will be able to fix everything easy like now, but if one of you have a lower Charisma skill, it will be more difficult, even if you have a higher charisma skill. Seems a bit complicated, and I'm horrible at explaining stuff, but basically link the consequences and stuff to Charisma is the main take away alongside giving our sims more consequences for their actions.
4) The ability to toggle on/off the help features like the pop ups that have a chance at giving extra money.
5) Adding an option to increase or decrease bills and costs of bills should be a setting. Costs of items should also have a slider too. This way you can change or or the other. I've heard several times that some of the items need adjusting anyway, mainly lowered. Maybe have some of the items cost per use and sims will autonomously use them, like toilet paper if it is beside the toilet would be used and that would go on the bills as item expenses, same with moping, it wouldn't be a lot per moping, but still, it would change how some people play the game.
6) The sickness system needs to be changed some. Make the habits of your sims increase or decrease the chance of you getting sick and the severity of how sick you get and how easily it is to spread the sickness to others. Maybe not the best addition currently.
These probably aren't the biggest changes, but I think some of them could increase the difficulty level and add some fun and depth to different things in the game and different packs. The options for them are the most important to me, so people can choose how challenging they want their game.