I have no need for story progression. I am happy that the devs have taken in consideration that not everyone wants changes all over the neighbourhood.
And the part where they say it will be a feature you can turn off and on and set to your own liking isn't just that? What would it take for them to "take into consideration" that not everyone wants this? That no one gets it?
Uhm,... I actually said I am happy that they want to make this optional. I never even suggested no one should get it. I know there are players out there who really want this, I'm just not one of them. I am very pleased that the devs want to make it optional.
The best solution will be an option to turn it off and it sounds like that is the plan in the long run. So I am all for it. This first version however will have pop up and no on/off switch. I am a bit concerned how that will turn out. It all depends on how many pop ups we get. I might hold off on updating for the first few days/weeks.
Hello, Simmers! I’m Nate, a designer for The Sims 4.
I joined the team during development of Island Living and have worked on several releases since then. Some accomplishments I’m proud of are: Professor Sims in Discover University (SimGuruMorgan and I made those happen together), the Onsen venue in Snowy Escape (it was surprisingly hard to prevent Servos from merrily wading to their doom in the hot spring), and the cows and llamas in Cottage Living!
Today, I want to give you all a behind-the-scenes look into the latest thing I’ve been a part of: Neighborhood Stories, which arrives on November, 30, 2021!
Neighborhood Stories
The Sims 4 has so much that your Sims can see and do, leading to interesting, and often unexpected, life moments. All these life moments add up to something very important: life change at an individual level. My team and I have been exploring ways to carry that same kind of life change to the whole world of The Sims 4 through Neighborhood Stories.
Neighborhood Stories are a set of gameplay moments that all revolve around a single purpose: bring more life to Neighbor Sims that live outside the active household. (“Neighbor Sims” refers to most of the non-player character (NPC) Sims in the game, not just ones who live on the same street as your household. Neighbor Sims excludes special NPCs such as Grim Reaper.)
There’s a lot we want to do to add more life to Neighbor Sims, so we’re rolling it out over more than one release.
This first release focuses on Sims connected to your household: coworkers they’ve gotten to know, friends they’ve met at the Gym or Library... maybe that one Sim who welcomed them to the neighborhood with fruitcake, which seems like a bold move, but to each their own, I guess.
In the same way that your Sims change as they move through life, these Neighbor Sims are getting some new life changes of their own such as choosing a new career or having a baby.
Future updates will build on this with more life changes for a wider range of Sims. Find additional info in the “What’s Next?” section near the end of this post, but for now let’s get a closer look at what’s in this release.
What’s the Neighborhood Stories Gameplay?
Neighborhood Stories begins with gameplay divided between life changes that your Sims can influence Neighbor Sims to consider, things Neighbor Sims autonomously consider, and some that fall into both categories.
Whether they consider a life change autonomously or under influence from your Sims, Neighbor Sims ultimately decide to initiate life changes themselves. That means these changes happen without any need to switch to another household.
“What if I don’t want Sims to autonomously change?” -- That’s okay! Everyone has a unique vision for their Sims, and some of you have poured lots of time and love into multi-household/multi-generation saves!
All along, we’ve worked with the explicit goal: you choose how Neighborhood Stories affect your game. The two ways this happens are:
You direct one of your Sims to influence a Neighbor Sim to consider a life change, or...
...a Neighbor Sim autonomously considering a life change will always call one of your Sims to ask for input before taking any action. You choose the outcome by directing your Sim to say “Yes,” “No,” or leaving it up to the Neighbor Sim to decide.
Our intent is to empower you to decide if a life change makes sense in the story your Sims are living out, or to leave that decision up to the Neighbor Sim altogether.
Remember, these life changes actually happen, so they won’t occur instantly. Neighbor Sims will keep your Sim posted with updates.
Here’s the full list of life changes:
Autonomous or Active Sim Influenced Life Changes
Neighbor Sims may consider these life changes independently, or your Sims can try to convince them to:
Change their current Career to a different one.
Have a baby with their partner, if they are in a relationship where either Sim can become pregnant.
Hang out with other Sims to form or deepen Friendly relationships
Autonomous-only Life Changes
Neighbor Sims can only undergo these life changes independently, but they’ll check with a Sim in the active household beforehand. They just need a little confidence boost! (Or to be let down easily. Don’t worry, they’ll understand!)
Try to get promoted in their current Career.
Accept a marriage proposal, if they are already Engaged to another Sim. Neighbor Sims will not autonomously get married for now.
Active Sim Influenced Life Changes
Your Sims can do these things to cause life changes for Neighbor Sims:
Trash talk one Sim to another, which will greatly reduce the relationship between those two Neighbor Sims.
Try to get two grown-up Sims, or two Teen Sims, to form a Romantic relationship.
Try to convince a Sim in a relationship to dump/divorce their Romantic partner
Encourage an unemployed Neighbor Sim to find a job
New Aspirations
To celebrate these new and improved gameplay moments, we’re adding two new Aspirations:
Neighborhood Confidante is for Sims who aspire to be a helpful and positive presence in the lives of Neighbor Sims. Making friends and guiding others toward life changes will earn the new Confidante trait, which increases the chance of conversations being pleasant. Ever had a conversation turn Boring or Awkward in the middle of a party? Confidante Sims are less susceptible to these mood killers.
Villainous Valentine is for Sims who aspire to destroy the love lives of all Sims, including their own. Have your Sim break up with someone! Have them break up other couples! Sims that walk this deviant path will earn the new Twisted Heart trait, which makes all Sad and Embarrassed moodlets decay faster and provides a little bonus Social when performing Mean or Mischief socials. Twisted Heart Sims simply DGAFB, which as we all know, stands for “Don’t Give A Freezer Bunny”.
All this new and improved gameplay is available to everyone as part of the base game. It doesn’t require any additional content to fully experience. Everything here also works with existing saves, no new game required.
How Do I See The New Gameplay?
Neighborhood Stories will be part of the base game update arriving November 30, 2021. Keep an eye out here for more details on that update. Once you have that, your Sims need to form at least one friendship outside the household.
For autonomous life changes, Neighbor Sims consider them depending on factors like Traits, meaning not all Sims will consider every life change. You’ll need to wait for Neighbor Sims to consider a change, but having Sims with more friends at higher relationship levels will increase the chances for life changes to happen. We’ve really tried to balance Neighbor Sim life changes happening at an interesting pace, without being too spammy or repetitive.
For life changes that your Sims can try to influence, here’s a breakdown:
To have your Sim influence positive change in Neighbor Sim’s lives, look for these new and updated Friendly socials. (Very useful to Sims with the new Neighborhood Confidante Aspiration.)
Ask <Sim Name> to Pursue Dream Job
Discuss Expanding the Family
Other Sims… > Talk Up Another Sim
Other Sims… > Hook Up With
To have your Sim try to harm Neighbor Sim’s relationships, look for these updated Mean socials. (Very useful to Sims with the new Villainous Valentine Aspiration.)
Other Sims… > Trash Another Sim
Other Sims… > Break Up With
What’s Coming In The Future?
Let’s talk about the future of Neighborhood Stories by returning to the main goal: bring more life to Neighbor Sims that live outside the active household. In a future update, we will realize that goal more broadly with the following:
Life changes for all Neighbor Sims, with or without relationships in the active household. Just because my Sims don’t know anyone in a particular other household doesn’t mean that household isn’t also changing.
Gameplay settings to tune life changes Neighbor Sims can and cannot have.
Controls are layered, allowing a mix and match of rules down to individual households.
Neighborhood Stories settings are on a per-save basis.
Those familiar with The Sims 3 are probably reminded of Story Progression. Both Story Progression and Neighborhood Stories allow Sims all over the game to experience life changes. However, I want to highlight two key differences:
Story Progression is one giant system that can only be turned on or off, leaving many players feeling like they must choose between a chaotic world and a boring one. Neighborhood Stories adds the rich gameplay settings I mentioned above, alleviating this issue while solving for the goal: you choose how Neighborhood Stories affects your game.
Story Progression can affect a wide range of factors in The Sims 3. At the start, Neighborhood Stories will have a much smaller range of life changes. This is because most of the work we’re doing now is on the underlying systems that drive these life changes, plus the gameplay settings we just talked about. That means better tools to create better gameplay, but first we have to do the work!
Whew, that was a lot! I hope this provided a good look at Neighborhood Stories now, and that you are just as excited as I am for what’s to come!
Until next time,
Nate
P.S. - Some of this gameplay leverages content that previously was specific to packs. We’ve chosen to do this in cases where the gameplay is a great fit for Neighborhood Stories and we saw opportunities to deepen and improve it for the game overall. Here’s the full list:
Have a baby with their partner
The autonomous version of this life change originates from Eco Lifestyle. We have added support for Sentiments and the Sim-influenced version is all new.
Accept a marriage proposal
Originates from Eco Lifestyle. Added support for Sentiments.
Form or deepen Friendly relationships
Originates from Get Together. Added more dynamic outcomes: if your Sim encourages a friend to hang out with someone they already despise, they won’t like that! On the other hand, if they form a new friendship, then they may also gain positive Sentiments toward your Sim.
Trash talk one Sim to another
Originates from Get Together. Added more dynamic outcomes: Sims will not take kindly to trash talk about their friends. Added special moodlets for Mean or Evil Sims.
Try to get two Sims to form a Romantic relationship
Originates from Get Together. Added more dynamic outcomes: Neighbor Sims won’t pair up with Sims whose traits conflict, such as Good / Evil, and the active Sim has clearer responses to all possible outcomes.
Try to convince a Sim in a relationship to dump/divorce their Romantic partner
Originates from Get Together. Added more dynamic outcomes: Relationship strength between Sims matters and a failed attempt to break up a relationship might backfire with a negative Sentiment from one or both partners!
Thanks for reading!
Oh no! 😱.
(Janice) Oh… my… god…
The notifications on other Sims via the likes/dislikes is annoying but now these will add more.
This is what I imagine playing my game will be like:
My Sims… say Herb and Marv know (and are connected) to Sims that come via the base game and Get Together.
They are going about thier day and this happens as they go along during a single day.
Messages:
Bella (Marv’s co-worker) wants a a new job, should she?
Dina (friend) wants a baby, should she?
Bob (Herb’s co-worker) wonders if he should get a better job?
Nina (Marv’s girlfriend) wants to spilt up Travis and Summer, can she?
Katrina! (Herb’s boss) wants to get Eliza to trash talk Bella, can she?
Nina wonders if she should accept Don’s marriage proposal?
Eliza is Bob’s wife can she be your friend too?
Texts:
Hi, it’s Dina here, how can I get promoted?
Hi, it’s Nina should I have a baby?
Hi, it’s Bella I need advice if I should be friends with Eliza?
Hi, it’s Eliza here. I’m Bob’s wife can I be your friend too?
Phone calls:
Hi it’s Bella here, just calling to see if I should find Bob a new wife? Eliza was rude to me!
Hi, it’s Bob can I look for a new job?
Hi, it’s Dina I really want to deepen my friendship with Bob what’s your advice?
Hi, it’s Sergio and Romeo your pals in Windenburg do you think we need a bigger house? Should we move?
Hi, Mila Munch I’m calling you Marv my lovely co-worker, as I want to quit food group but I’m not sure.
Hi, it’s Eliza here. I’m Bob’s wife can I be your friend too?
Herb and Marv can’t even have dinner as the calls and stuff keep coming in 🙄🤦🏼♂️.
Phone calls:
Hi, it’s Bella I just bumped into Nancy Landgraab at the gym should I accept her friendship offer?
Hi, it’s Dina I still haven’t been promoted so I need your advice.
Hi, it’s Nina. Don just told me he wants triplets! Help!
Hi, it’s Eliza here. I’m Bob’s wife can I be your friend too?
Messages:
Hi, it’s Mila here. Which group should I join? Call me!
Hi, it’s Nina should I join the Business career?
Hi, it’s Eliza here. I’m Bob’s wife can I be your friend too?
Herb and Marv finally moved away and stopped connecting to other Sims. Now they live in peace. 😊🎉
—0–
I really hope there’s an option to turn this feature off. Not impressed.
Well, I for one will be ensuring I play in offline mode before this lands.
Awake.
Shake dreams from your hair
My pretty child, my sweet one.
Choose the day and choose the sign of your day
The day's divinity.... The Ghost Song - Jim Morrison
They will just have to find a balance between autonomous and influenced interactions.
Perhaps an 80/20 or 70/30 ratio of Influenced/Autonomous, meaning that average players will be doing more influencing than they will be seeing autonomous interactions in general to create this impression of a living world.
Perhaps you only get one autonomous call a day as a base limit, or set a limit like 3 per week.
But you get more if you play in a way that have sims seeking you out for advice. Progression Gateway Socials, so to speak. If you don't use them sims won't flood you with advice questions. So stay away from the gateway socials if you do not want more than the light amount.
These socials can have little icons on them that indicate they are related to story progression. There should be an icon for influence and have the sim go on with direct action on their own, and an icon for socials that will stimulate autonomous responses for advice.
I would rather be actively targeting the sims I want to see changed with advice and only have a few call my sim up, just for a little bit of randomness and getting that living world vibe. Actually I like the idea of planting progression seeds with socials and seeing what happens. Maybe they will, maybe they won't. But that will be for sims that I don't intend to play.
In my main save I have a core of 5 households that I want direct control. I don't need any of them calling me when I am not playing them. I want to protect them from any changes story progression might make.
There is an outer-circle of 15 households that are important to my core households, but I don't necessarily want to play them fully. I just want to jump in from time to time for a change and see how they are living and give some minor tweaks to their progression. I would love to have these sim contact my core sims for advice. Using my core households to influence story progression would make it easy for me instead of having to change households to initiate the changes.
The rest of the world are the outer-most circle and I have no desire to play them, but I want to see them living out their lives with families and career advancement. I may weave a few of them into my core sims scenarios from time to time, and it would be nice if they feel dynamic and not static. I don't won't them bothering me with calls, unless my sim is actually involved with them with high relationship levels. This might be what the next step in story progression controls.
Household toggles.
-No Progression (Will not progress for any reason.)
-Limited Progression (User controlled: Can be progressed with Influence and initiated Autonomous game play.)
-Free Progression (Computer controlled: Free to progress sims with other free progression households)
No Progression is the default setting for all households.
The notifications on other Sims via the likes/dislikes is annoying but now these will add more.
This is what I imagine playing my game will be like:
My Sims… say Herb and Marv know (and are connected) to Sims that come via the base game and Get Together.
They are going about thier day and this happens as they go along during a single day.
Messages:
Bella (Marv’s co-worker) wants a a new job, should she?
Dina (friend) wants a baby, should she?
Bob (Herb’s co-worker) wonders if he should get a better job?
Nina (Marv’s girlfriend) wants to spilt up Travis and Summer, can she?
Katrina! (Herb’s boss) wants to get Eliza to trash talk Bella, can she?
Nina wonders if she should accept Don’s marriage proposal?
Eliza is Bob’s wife can she be your friend too?
Texts:
Hi, it’s Dina here, how can I get promoted?
Hi, it’s Nina should I have a baby?
Hi, it’s Bella I need advice if I should be friends with Eliza?
Hi, it’s Eliza here. I’m Bob’s wife can I be your friend too?
Phone calls:
Hi it’s Bella here, just calling to see if I should find Bob a new wife? Eliza was rude to me!
Hi, it’s Bob can I look for a new job?
Hi, it’s Dina I really want to deepen my friendship with Bob what’s your advice?
Hi, it’s Sergio and Romeo your pals in Windenburg do you think we need a bigger house? Should we move?
Hi, Mila Munch I’m calling you Marv my lovely co-worker, as I want to quit food group but I’m not sure.
Hi, it’s Eliza here. I’m Bob’s wife can I be your friend too?
Herb and Marv can’t even have dinner as the calls and stuff keep coming in 🙄🤦🏼♂️.
Phone calls:
Hi, it’s Bella I just bumped into Nancy Landgraab at the gym should I accept her friendship offer?
Hi, it’s Dina I still haven’t been promoted so I need your advice.
Hi, it’s Nina. Don just told me he wants triplets! Help!
Hi, it’s Eliza here. I’m Bob’s wife can I be your friend too?
Messages:
Hi, it’s Mila here. Which group should I join? Call me!
Hi, it’s Nina should I join the Business career?
Hi, it’s Eliza here. I’m Bob’s wife can I be your friend too?
Herb and Marv finally moved away and stopped connecting to other Sims. Now they live in peace. 😊🎉
—0–
I really hope there’s an option to turn this feature off. Not impressed.
Yeah, I love the overall idea. I'm just really hoping it can be set to completely autonomous. Constant phone calls will be a game ender for me. Although, I wouldn't mind instead seeing neighborhood changes scrolling through the messages now and then - unless it directly involves my (played) sims. Then I suppose a phone call could be warranted.
@SimGuruNate
How will Relationship Culling work alongside this feature? If my sim “talks up” another sim to their friend, sure maybe they’ll become friends, but does that really last? Because I’ve seen relationships disappear through the Relationship Culling system. For example, I played the Goths and the Landgraabs for a few days each, and then started playing Windenburg families - where none of their pre-existing relationships outside the household remained. Just one example is how Siobhan Fyres was supposed to have a boyfriend, Sergio Romeo, and was friends with Sofia Bjergsen and Luna Villareal. But none of these relationships existed by the time I played them (a week or so into the save) because they were unplayed households at the time of relationship culling. Even my played households are subject to relationship culling during rotational play. I have to re-introduce sims who were friends or even exes previously.
So will this destructive feature be changed or removed when Neighborhood Stories is launched? How otherwise can we protect the relationships we are fostering through the new system? And will new parents know their own children?
One way to keep them from decaying would be to have them be in clubs together, and have those clubs gather and do things even when you're not playing. So if you go to the library, the book club is there talking to each other about books - even if your sim is not in the book club. I don't know if it works, but saw somewhere that it supposedly does. I have created romantic clubs for all my couples and they seem to be really in love whenever I see them, so it seems to work for me, but then I have culling off so I don't know if it would work if I didn't have a mod to stop it.
In the example I gave, Siobhan Fyres was already in a club with Luna and Sofia. And my playable sims were in clubs together plenty of times when relationship culling occurred. I am not going to travel around to different lots just to make sure these other clubs are meeting up and maintaining their friendships. Talk about micromanaging. I shouldn’t have to create a club for 2 sims that just became friends to maintain that friendship and then make sure they meet up. Furthermore, there is a limit of 3 clubs each sim can be in.
You’ve been playing with relationship culling off so you’re speaking about something you really don’t know about.
Well, I for one will be ensuring I play in offline mode before this lands.
Same, I'm not planning to update my game with this until it's properly fleshed out and comes with options to either disable it or tweak it to my preferences. I have aging off for everybody except the active household in my game and at the moment I'm struggling to see how it would even work with these aging settings.
I am excited for this, but like others have mentioned before, i wish there was some way to let the game progress the households i choose to be affected by it without asking for my input or having me influence things. I dont want to be so much in control as it felt more fun and surprising that way.
Same, and I can already tell those calls are gonna get annoying!
Please give rotational players something we can work with. It's already bad enough that University is nigh impossible to navigate successfully if we decide to switch for a little while and play another household between semesters, or that Sims who grew up together in the same household have to reintroduce themselves after a time if one of them moves out because I played a different Sim for too long and they lost the memory of ever having known each other. I feel like rotational play style is always getting thrown out with the trash or ignored and never improved.
As an aside here, I play rotationally and I have university rotation down to a perfect art. The trick is to start a semester Saturday morning, have them do a lot of schoolwork over that first weekend before classes start, then have them attend classes Mon-Fri, and rotate away from the University household before 6pm on Friday. They will pass with flying colors even though you technically rotate out before the semester is over. The only problem is if you have multiple years (freshmen and seniors for example) in one dorm, then you can't attend graduation or it will mess up all the younger classes (honestly I find graduation not that interesting anyway). They still get their diplomas in this style of play too! Not sure if you do something similar, but I wanted to mention it because it took me forever to figure out how to make that work.
@GirafHuntr Thank you for this advice, I'll give it a try. I did have my students starting on the weekend and then I switched at some point on a Friday when their classes and stuff were done, but when I eventually returned to the dorm, my Sim got kicked out and had to move back home. I'll try switching before 6pm and returning on Saturday morning. My problem is that I don't tend to pay much attention to time or days (because I just go with the flow of what I feel like playing at the time) so I'll just have to be on top of it for those households. I really like to play a mix of students in different semesters together in one dorm and when one graduates, I bring another in, so hopefully I can find a good flow with this. Uni was one of my favorite EPs in TS2 and I just really want to get that fun, chaotic college life back in my game. I do like the structure of TS4 Uni, I just need a way to be able to take a break to play other households without it being disruptive to the students.
I've got very mixed feelings, and a lot of worries about this update.
I actually like the idea that sims in the played household can try to influence other sims' lives through interacting with them. That sounds like it could be fun, and I can see myself using it occasionally.
But I don't want any sims outside of the active household autonomously making life changes of any kind. Ever. Sims not making any changes to their lives outside of the active household is one of the reasons why I love Sims 4. It leaves me completely free to direct everything the way I want it without the game interfering with my stories.
It looks like the devs are trying to make this feature customizable and player directed, which is good, but why is there no simple "off" toggle mentioned? Having sims call/text to ask about the change they are considering is not an "off" toggle. It is an annoyance.
If the later development updates include an off toggle, that's great. But why release the system without that at the start? If there is an "off" toggle in the first stage, why not mention that clearly in the description, so we can stop freaking out?
No, I am not a fan of this at all. Some people may like it, some won't. I get rather annoyed by constant pop-ups already. Honestly, I don't know where the team is going with this game. Some things they put in the game just don't work. What bugs me more than anything, is they don't play around with these things to flesh them out and work out the bugs/glitches.
I'm torn. I am interested in this and would love to use this feature, but it seems like a lot of pop-ups and there is a bug on console that makes me wary. (The bug is over two years old, so I'm not hopeful of it getting fixed soon).
The bug causes players to be unable to close a pop-up if they happen to have picked up an item (plate if food, book etc..) before the pop-up appears.
Unless you are able to use a mouse with your console, the only way to fix the issue is to reload your game without saving meaning that you lose progress.
Question: Regarding the calls that are like "should we have a baby" that come from Eco Living, is that going to be made basegame via this patch or do we still have to buy the pack to get that text/call/question?
Nope. Not going down that path with my game! What I want are better ways to tell MY stories. Not some scripted version of how Maxis wants my stories to be told. All this update will do is muck up my mods, add more bugs and try to take control of every storyline I have been working on for the past year. A glorified chance card system is all I see happening in this update so I politely decline relinquishing what little control I still have left over what happens in my game. Who wants even more annoying and useless phone calls? I sure as heck don't.
Some of you claim this will be optional, but as far as I recall that original blog post said nothing about *all* being optional. He said we will be able to tune it, like setting how we like some of the involved features/levels to affect our game. Until otherwise has been confirmed, I expect that we will not be able to turn it off 100%. Meaning we will need to accept *some* phone calls and popup. In my book just 1 single phone call related to story progression will be too much.
After updating my game this weekend (I think there are a couple patches waiting with stuff I don't need, but probably with a few fixes included) I'll go offline from now on. No more patches, no more packs. Glad there is still plenty content in my game already, features that I have not yet explored.
@Simmerville Even though there might be the option to turn this off, that doesn't mean it won't have a negative impact on our game because it will still be installed in the Sims4 main folder. And once it has been installed, there is no way to get rid of it. That will mean everything in our saves will be affected along with dozens of the mods I am using. Since my game is running better than ever, as well as the fact I like the mods I have that tweak the game into something I actually enjoy playing, I think the time has come to end this relentless updating altogether. I haven't updated for quite a while now, and to be honest, I haven't seen anything in the newest updates I want. If players continue to accept the updates and kits as substitutes for new packs, what motivation will EA/Maxis have for creating new GPs and EPs? Sims4 is slowly winding down, and I think most of the game development resources have been handed over to the teams working on Sims5. I don't expect much more is in development for Sims4 at this point. They might throw us another GP and a Generations style EP next year, but don't expect much more than more updates and kits. They have even become less forthcoming with new info on the pack refreshes. And I'm not as excited about those as I was when those were announced, either.
Messages:
Bella (Marv’s co-worker) wants a a new job, should she?
Dina (friend) wants a baby, should she?
Bob (Herb’s co-worker) wonders if he should get a better job?
Nina (Marv’s girlfriend) wants to spilt up Travis and Summer, can she?
Katrina! (Herb’s boss) wants to get Eliza to trash talk Bella, can she?
Nina wonders if she should accept Don’s marriage proposal?
Eliza is Bob’s wife can she be your friend too?
Texts:
Hi, it’s Dina here, how can I get promoted?
Hi, it’s Nina should I have a baby?
Hi, it’s Bella I need advice if I should be friends with Eliza?
Hi, it’s Eliza here. I’m Bob’s wife can I be your friend too?
Phone calls:
Hi it’s Bella here, just calling to see if I should find Bob a new wife? Eliza was rude to me!
Hi, it’s Bob can I look for a new job?
Hi, it’s Dina I really want to deepen my friendship with Bob what’s your advice?
Hi, it’s Sergio and Romeo your pals in Windenburg do you think we need a bigger house? Should we move?
Hi, Mila Munch I’m calling you Marv my lovely co-worker, as I want to quit food group but I’m not sure.
Hi, it’s Eliza here. I’m Bob’s wife can I be your friend too?
Herb and Marv can’t even have dinner as the calls and stuff keep coming in 🙄🤦🏼♂️.
Phone calls:
Hi, it’s Bella I just bumped into Nancy Landgraab at the gym should I accept her friendship offer?
Hi, it’s Dina I still haven’t been promoted so I need your advice.
Hi, it’s Nina. Don just told me he wants triplets! Help!
Hi, it’s Eliza here. I’m Bob’s wife can I be your friend too?
Messages:
Hi, it’s Mila here. Which group should I join? Call me!
Hi, it’s Nina should I join the Business career?
Hi, it’s Eliza here. I’m Bob’s wife can I be your friend too?
Herb and Marv finally moved away and stopped connecting to other Sims. Now they live in peace. 😊🎉
—0–
I really hope there’s an option to turn this feature off. Not impressed.
I agree, there better be an opt-out option on this. I seriously don't care about the NPCs in my game, the only reason they're even allowed to stay is to run the food stands. If they can't manage their own lives, that's their problem. I have enough to deal with with the 40+ households I do control.
I'm actually really looking forward to this feature. I currently progress my townie Sims lives thru mods like MCCC and others to make the neighbourhoods feel more alive. I don't mind the phone calls personally.
Nope. Not going down that path with my game! What I want are better ways to tell MY stories. Not some scripted version of how Maxis wants my stories to be told. All this update will do is muck up my mods, add more bugs and try to take control of every storyline I have been working on for the past year. A glorified chance card system is all I see happening in this update so I politely decline relinquishing what little control I still have left over what happens in my game. Who wants even more annoying and useless phone calls? I sure as heck don't.
Yup. Been a long time since TS4's initial slogan "You Rule" became obsolete.
I wouldn't be able to play "my way" without MCC to stop relationship culling. There's nothing worse than seeing the relationship panel of my played households filled up with random townies. While the actual friendships you build get deleted.
Edit: oh yes there's something worse. Culled sims from the family tree.
I would love to have actual control of the townie population. Set a number for required NPCs to stop the game from generating more eyesores.
Question: Regarding the calls that are like "should we have a baby" that come from Eco Living, is that going to be made basegame via this patch or do we still have to buy the pack to get that text/call/question?
We'll get a base game patch to add those calls/texts from Eco Living. Same thing with the social features from Get Together ("Talk Up," "Trash Talk," etc.)
I'm actually really looking forward to this feature. I currently progress my townie Sims lives thru mods like MCCC and others to make the neighbourhoods feel more alive. I don't mind the phone calls personally.
I feel the same. I'm also quite excited to see how it all works.
For those intending to install the patch tomorrow don't forget to disable your mods and backup your saves.
I'm copying my entire Sims 4 folder to an external flash drive. Just in case. 😄
Oh my goodness, yes! Thank you for reminding me!
We don't know yet how the new changes are going to affect our games so it's important to have our games backed up in case we want to "undo" our gameplay. I know I want to experiment a little bit so I'll probably use a copy "test version" of my save first.
I will be following things from the offline-world. Hope to get some feedback from rotational players on how it works. Hopefully it will mesh with my playstyle, it would be preferable to continue getting the packs that appeal to me.
I don't think basing incoming story progression calls on traits is enough to render them non-intrusive. Traits can only ever cover aspects of a sim, and just looking at their traits won't tell the game how a particular player sim is to be played:
Me: At one time in her life, Kara had to shoplift to survive and it became a bad habit that she is still struggling against. It is her secret shame that might just jeopardize her career plans at the worst moment. Sims 4: My player is playing his Chief of Police, Hank, let's see which of his friends might call. Ah, this klepto here is stuck in the politics career, bet she'd rather be a Criminal. Let's make her call and ask Hank if she should change to that career! Kara: Heya, dad in law! Slow day at the precinct? I know how to liven that up! I could become a criminal mastermind!!! Hank: Thanks for trying to cheer me up, girl.
Me: Daniel is a family-oriented sim in a modern western setting. He has a biological daughter and after careful consideration took in a co-worker's son in fostercare. He doesn't need to make eight children in the hopes that two will survive. Sims 4:Aw, a family sim! He wants lots of babies! BABIES!
Me:Gavin is an ambitious and mean detective who, due to his homeless background, reacts very strongly to any perceived threat of his position. For years he had trouble with a Proper and Self Assured upstart by name of Connor, but they have finally patched things between them and are now friends. Trouble is, they are at the same rank in the detective career now and Gavin's old insecurities concerning young Connor return... Sims 4: Hello Gavin, this is Connor! I consider tackling a promotion! Should I try for a better position? How about YOURS? Gavin:This better be a prank call...
There are only so much of similar phone calls that I can pretend "never happened", so I'll stay offline, too, until this mess is sorted out.
Comments
Uhm,... I actually said I am happy that they want to make this optional. I never even suggested no one should get it. I know there are players out there who really want this, I'm just not one of them. I am very pleased that the devs want to make it optional.
The best solution will be an option to turn it off and it sounds like that is the plan in the long run. So I am all for it. This first version however will have pop up and no on/off switch. I am a bit concerned how that will turn out. It all depends on how many pop ups we get. I might hold off on updating for the first few days/weeks.
Oh no! 😱.
(Janice) Oh… my… god…
The notifications on other Sims via the likes/dislikes is annoying but now these will add more.
This is what I imagine playing my game will be like:
My Sims… say Herb and Marv know (and are connected) to Sims that come via the base game and Get Together.
They are going about thier day and this happens as they go along during a single day.
Messages:
Bella (Marv’s co-worker) wants a a new job, should she?
Dina (friend) wants a baby, should she?
Bob (Herb’s co-worker) wonders if he should get a better job?
Nina (Marv’s girlfriend) wants to spilt up Travis and Summer, can she?
Katrina! (Herb’s boss) wants to get Eliza to trash talk Bella, can she?
Nina wonders if she should accept Don’s marriage proposal?
Eliza is Bob’s wife can she be your friend too?
Texts:
Hi, it’s Dina here, how can I get promoted?
Hi, it’s Nina should I have a baby?
Hi, it’s Bella I need advice if I should be friends with Eliza?
Hi, it’s Eliza here. I’m Bob’s wife can I be your friend too?
Phone calls:
Hi it’s Bella here, just calling to see if I should find Bob a new wife? Eliza was rude to me!
Hi, it’s Bob can I look for a new job?
Hi, it’s Dina I really want to deepen my friendship with Bob what’s your advice?
Hi, it’s Sergio and Romeo your pals in Windenburg do you think we need a bigger house? Should we move?
Hi, Mila Munch I’m calling you Marv my lovely co-worker, as I want to quit food group but I’m not sure.
Hi, it’s Eliza here. I’m Bob’s wife can I be your friend too?
Herb and Marv can’t even have dinner as the calls and stuff keep coming in 🙄🤦🏼♂️.
Phone calls:
Hi, it’s Bella I just bumped into Nancy Landgraab at the gym should I accept her friendship offer?
Hi, it’s Dina I still haven’t been promoted so I need your advice.
Hi, it’s Nina. Don just told me he wants triplets! Help!
Hi, it’s Eliza here. I’m Bob’s wife can I be your friend too?
Messages:
Hi, it’s Mila here. Which group should I join? Call me!
Hi, it’s Nina should I join the Business career?
Hi, it’s Eliza here. I’m Bob’s wife can I be your friend too?
Herb and Marv finally moved away and stopped connecting to other Sims. Now they live in peace. 😊🎉
—0–
I really hope there’s an option to turn this feature off. Not impressed.
Shake dreams from your hair
My pretty child, my sweet one.
Choose the day and choose the sign of your day
The day's divinity....
The Ghost Song - Jim Morrison
Perhaps an 80/20 or 70/30 ratio of Influenced/Autonomous, meaning that average players will be doing more influencing than they will be seeing autonomous interactions in general to create this impression of a living world.
Perhaps you only get one autonomous call a day as a base limit, or set a limit like 3 per week.
But you get more if you play in a way that have sims seeking you out for advice.
Progression Gateway Socials, so to speak. If you don't use them sims won't flood you with advice questions. So stay away from the gateway socials if you do not want more than the light amount.
These socials can have little icons on them that indicate they are related to story progression. There should be an icon for influence and have the sim go on with direct action on their own, and an icon for socials that will stimulate autonomous responses for advice.
I would rather be actively targeting the sims I want to see changed with advice and only have a few call my sim up, just for a little bit of randomness and getting that living world vibe. Actually I like the idea of planting progression seeds with socials and seeing what happens. Maybe they will, maybe they won't. But that will be for sims that I don't intend to play.
In my main save I have a core of 5 households that I want direct control. I don't need any of them calling me when I am not playing them. I want to protect them from any changes story progression might make.
There is an outer-circle of 15 households that are important to my core households, but I don't necessarily want to play them fully. I just want to jump in from time to time for a change and see how they are living and give some minor tweaks to their progression. I would love to have these sim contact my core sims for advice. Using my core households to influence story progression would make it easy for me instead of having to change households to initiate the changes.
The rest of the world are the outer-most circle and I have no desire to play them, but I want to see them living out their lives with families and career advancement. I may weave a few of them into my core sims scenarios from time to time, and it would be nice if they feel dynamic and not static. I don't won't them bothering me with calls, unless my sim is actually involved with them with high relationship levels. This might be what the next step in story progression controls.
Household toggles.
-No Progression (Will not progress for any reason.)
-Limited Progression (User controlled: Can be progressed with Influence and initiated Autonomous game play.)
-Free Progression (Computer controlled: Free to progress sims with other free progression households)
No Progression is the default setting for all households.
Yeah, I love the overall idea. I'm just really hoping it can be set to completely autonomous. Constant phone calls will be a game ender for me. Although, I wouldn't mind instead seeing neighborhood changes scrolling through the messages now and then - unless it directly involves my (played) sims. Then I suppose a phone call could be warranted.
You’ve been playing with relationship culling off so you’re speaking about something you really don’t know about.
Same, I'm not planning to update my game with this until it's properly fleshed out and comes with options to either disable it or tweak it to my preferences. I have aging off for everybody except the active household in my game and at the moment I'm struggling to see how it would even work with these aging settings.
Same, and I can already tell those calls are gonna get annoying!
@GirafHuntr Thank you for this advice, I'll give it a try. I did have my students starting on the weekend and then I switched at some point on a Friday when their classes and stuff were done, but when I eventually returned to the dorm, my Sim got kicked out and had to move back home. I'll try switching before 6pm and returning on Saturday morning. My problem is that I don't tend to pay much attention to time or days (because I just go with the flow of what I feel like playing at the time) so I'll just have to be on top of it for those households. I really like to play a mix of students in different semesters together in one dorm and when one graduates, I bring another in, so hopefully I can find a good flow with this. Uni was one of my favorite EPs in TS2 and I just really want to get that fun, chaotic college life back in my game. I do like the structure of TS4 Uni, I just need a way to be able to take a break to play other households without it being disruptive to the students.
Thanks again for the advice.
I actually like the idea that sims in the played household can try to influence other sims' lives through interacting with them. That sounds like it could be fun, and I can see myself using it occasionally.
But I don't want any sims outside of the active household autonomously making life changes of any kind. Ever. Sims not making any changes to their lives outside of the active household is one of the reasons why I love Sims 4. It leaves me completely free to direct everything the way I want it without the game interfering with my stories.
It looks like the devs are trying to make this feature customizable and player directed, which is good, but why is there no simple "off" toggle mentioned? Having sims call/text to ask about the change they are considering is not an "off" toggle. It is an annoyance.
If the later development updates include an off toggle, that's great. But why release the system without that at the start? If there is an "off" toggle in the first stage, why not mention that clearly in the description, so we can stop freaking out?
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-PS-XB-Unable-to-Clear-Message-Box-if-you-Pick-an-object-up/td-p/7830328
The bug causes players to be unable to close a pop-up if they happen to have picked up an item (plate if food, book etc..) before the pop-up appears.
Unless you are able to use a mouse with your console, the only way to fix the issue is to reload your game without saving meaning that you lose progress.
After updating my game this weekend (I think there are a couple patches waiting with stuff I don't need, but probably with a few fixes included) I'll go offline from now on. No more patches, no more packs. Glad there is still plenty content in my game already, features that I have not yet explored.
I agree, there better be an opt-out option on this. I seriously don't care about the NPCs in my game, the only reason they're even allowed to stay is to run the food stands. If they can't manage their own lives, that's their problem. I have enough to deal with with the 40+ households I do control.
Yup. Been a long time since TS4's initial slogan "You Rule" became obsolete.
I wouldn't be able to play "my way" without MCC to stop relationship culling. There's nothing worse than seeing the relationship panel of my played households filled up with random townies. While the actual friendships you build get deleted.
Edit: oh yes there's something worse. Culled sims from the family tree.
I would love to have actual control of the townie population. Set a number for required NPCs to stop the game from generating more eyesores.
We'll get a base game patch to add those calls/texts from Eco Living. Same thing with the social features from Get Together ("Talk Up," "Trash Talk," etc.)
I feel the same. I'm also quite excited to see how it all works.
I'm copying my entire Sims 4 folder to an external flash drive. Just in case. 😄
Oh my goodness, yes! Thank you for reminding me!
We don't know yet how the new changes are going to affect our games so it's important to have our games backed up in case we want to "undo" our gameplay. I know I want to experiment a little bit so I'll probably use a copy "test version" of my save first.
Good luck everyone.
Me: At one time in her life, Kara had to shoplift to survive and it became a bad habit that she is still struggling against. It is her secret shame that might just jeopardize her career plans at the worst moment.
Sims 4: My player is playing his Chief of Police, Hank, let's see which of his friends might call. Ah, this klepto here is stuck in the politics career, bet she'd rather be a Criminal. Let's make her call and ask Hank if she should change to that career!
Kara: Heya, dad in law! Slow day at the precinct? I know how to liven that up! I could become a criminal mastermind!!!
Hank: Thanks for trying to cheer me up, girl.
Me: Daniel is a family-oriented sim in a modern western setting. He has a biological daughter and after careful consideration took in a co-worker's son in fostercare. He doesn't need to make eight children in the hopes that two will survive.
Sims 4:Aw, a family sim! He wants lots of babies! BABIES!
Me:Gavin is an ambitious and mean detective who, due to his homeless background, reacts very strongly to any perceived threat of his position. For years he had trouble with a Proper and Self Assured upstart by name of Connor, but they have finally patched things between them and are now friends. Trouble is, they are at the same rank in the detective career now and Gavin's old insecurities concerning young Connor return...
Sims 4: Hello Gavin, this is Connor! I consider tackling a promotion! Should I try for a better position? How about YOURS?
Gavin:This better be a prank call...
There are only so much of similar phone calls that I can pretend "never happened", so I'll stay offline, too, until this mess is sorted out.