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    Has the new update to neighborhood stories added more depth to the game?

    «1
    Bren91Bren91 Posts: 299 Member
    in The Sims 4 General Discussion
    I’m just wondering how many players think this update has added more fun to the game with neighborhood stories on. Does it give it more depth? I like the sims 4 but tend to get bored fast because it has always lacked depth as far as free will goes and the game has always felt like it should have been called Sim Heaven instead of of the sims 4 because not enough happens and it has felt like almost too much of a perfect world where not much happens and there are no consequences to their actions. So hopefully this update brings it more alive and life like with the goofy charm it’s always had. I have yet to play it since the last update.

    Has the new update to neighborhood stories added more depth to the game? 50 votes

    Yes it has completely changed the dynamic of the game
    40%
    BluegayleEvvieSimmerMichelleWlisamwittMi9shaoscarcornflake88babajaynesimgirl1010RamblineRoseMoonCrossWarrior22DoloresGreyEvaliynZandlolaTTNsimmerDaWaterRatElliandredogzdinnerTequila_Rose_13191KerriganElisetom 20 votes
    No it hasn’t added any kind of depth
    16%
    SimCrazytaydevBabykittyjademikamakimonRouensimsKimmerCalico45EternalSunshine 8 votes
    It’s made an improvement but not much of one
    44%
    GalacticGalStormkeepfreindlylolKironideaparkisonbixtersLoriTSpannaliese39ArzekialZiafarFanPhoriaAtreya33OceancatgrassharpPeralSERVERFRAGordyBecka28AngeliqueAdelaideUniqueKhaos 22 votes

    Comments

    • Options
      AstroAstro Posts: 6,651 Member
      I haven't updated yet, but from what I've heard there's been a lot of death. :D
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      StormkeepStormkeep Posts: 7,632 Member
      It’s made an improvement but not much of one
      While I appreciate the feature, and am actually very pleased with how they implemented it (very customizable), it's still missing some pretty core features that it needs to be a game changer. It needs to have sims get engaged and then get married, sometimes get divorced, and the move-in/Move-out features needs to be expanded so that when kids grow up, they move out on their own while their parents stay behind (or visa versa).
      If they add those features, it will be perfect.
      This post will be edited by StormKeep at some point.
      2c2ab3785fad83173d9a155efa4afd1fc99b9595.jpg
      The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
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      logionlogion Posts: 4,720 Member
      edited March 2022
      I'm a little curious to know too, I wonder if these events will happen too often as newly added features often have a tendency to do that.
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      Simmer_chiyenSimmer_chiyen Posts: 362 Member
      edited March 2022
      I haven’t played for quite some time now. But I’m curious about one thing—is the random death based on RNG or logical settings (freeze to death in Winter; drowned because they have a pool)? And is it too common? It’d be best, of course, if we get to fine-tune the frequency. I personally think one or two accidental deaths per Sim Year is ideal.
    • Options
      simgirl1010simgirl1010 Posts: 35,883 Member
      edited March 2022
      Yes it has completely changed the dynamic of the game
      For me. I play one family. Unlike rotational players nothing ever happened with my neighbor sims, friends, and relatives. They were static. With neighborhood stories I now feel part of a much larger, growing, changing, evolving Sims universe.
    • Options
      crocobauracrocobaura Posts: 7,385 Member
      Simmer_chiyen wrote: »
      I haven’t played for quite some time now. But I’m curious about one thing—is the random death based on RNG or logical settings (freeze to death in Winter; drowned because they have a pool)? And is it too common? It’d be best, of course, if we get to fine-tune the frequency. I personally think one or two accidental deaths per Sim Year is ideal.

      Logical accidental deaths would make so much sense. They should probably have two or three checks in place for them to happen, that way they would not occur that often either. Like if the game chooses a sim to die by drowning, it could check for pool availability on home lot, or swimmable water or public pool in home world, and then skill level and weather or some traits. If any of the conditions are not met, then the sim gets to live another day. They could have a different death scenario everyday and roll randomly for a sim, and chances are there won't be so many death is a short period of time.
    • Options
      SimCrazySimCrazy Posts: 9,908 Member
      No it hasn’t added any kind of depth
      I wouldn't consider what it added to be depth, necessarily.
    • Options
      GalacticGalGalacticGal Posts: 28,585 Member
      It’s made an improvement but not much of one
      So far I've seen two or three adoptions and I believe somebody got a new pet. That's the extent of my experience. I have no clue how to adjust the dern thing, either. I looked under Options, under Gameplay and so far, nada. I know we can click on the mailbox — makes me wonder if on the mailbox there's options? I don't know.
      You can download (free) all three volumes of my Night Whispers Star Trek Fanfiction here: http://galacticgal.deviantart.com/gallery/ You'll need to have a pdf reader. New websites: http://www.trekkiefanfiction.com/st-tos.php
      http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/
    • Options
      simgirl1010simgirl1010 Posts: 35,883 Member
      edited March 2022
      Yes it has completely changed the dynamic of the game
      Deleted. Question answered in another thread.
      Post edited by simgirl1010 on
    • Options
      DaWaterRatDaWaterRat Posts: 3,355 Member
      Yes it has completely changed the dynamic of the game
      Really my opinion is somewhere between the top and the bottom ones. It's a noteworthy improvement, but I don't know that I'd go so far as "Completely change the dynamic" But I may change my mind on that when I've been in a save long enough to go through several generations and see how Neighborhood Stories works long term.

      In any case, it will mean a significant reconfiguration of my MCCC settings when I reinstall that, to cover the areas that Neighborhood stories does not - yet.
    • Options
      babajaynebabajayne Posts: 1,866 Member
      Yes it has completely changed the dynamic of the game
      Not depth - but it sure does add some exciting changes and surprises. Still a big deal imo.
    • Options
      aparkisonaparkison Posts: 135 Member
      It’s made an improvement but not much of one
      It's a good start, but it needs more. I'm enjoying it a lot and I hope they do add in single Sim moving, Unplayed households forming romantic attachments, etc. Maybe those things will come with some sort of attraction system down the road?

      Overall though, I'm happy because it's a big step up from the awful Story Progression in Sims 3.

    • Options
      lisamwittlisamwitt Posts: 5,096 Member
      Yes it has completely changed the dynamic of the game
      I still think there is some depth missing in the game, specifically in the Sims themselves, however this is a big thing that people have been asking for. I'm personally thrilled with the customization of it. I gave townies all the available options, but I set the "premades"-by-me and my households all the way I wanted.

      It also looks, just based on the size of the box, like they may plan to add more things. Things like get married, get divorced, become an occult, go to University, split from household.
      Gallery ID: LadyGray01
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      ThriorThrior Posts: 612 Member
      edited March 2022
      I think it is a huge improvement to make the worlds feel more alive. It emulates what TS3's storyprogression did without the annoying parts of it for customization like this is something TS3 seriously needed. It's missing features like marriage/divorce/friendships/enemies and such though I fully understand that might get a bit too complex and thus have a chance of getting "too simplified answers". E.g. in my TS3 game (which might have been because of the storyprogression mod) it was pretty much guaranteed that if you had a mean sim they'd sabotage all their relationships regardless of the personality of their significant other/family/etc. I found that too predictable/boring. So in that regard it might be better they don't touch relationships and leave it up to player input. Of course, customization helps but if it's only between enabling/disabling predictable outcomes then... I don't know, I personally wouldn't really care for it. Too much randomness might feel weird as well when it comes to relationships but I dunno. (I got some random outcomes with MCC and some of them were pretty funny like supposedly noncommittal Marcus Flex getting married and having kids.)
      Ability to enable/disable this for each family might solve a lot of these things but I'm just musing.
      Simmer_chiyen wrote: »
      I haven’t played for quite some time now. But I’m curious about one thing—is the random death based on RNG or logical settings (freeze to death in Winter; drowned because they have a pool)? And is it too common? It’d be best, of course, if we get to fine-tune the frequency. I personally think one or two accidental deaths per Sim Year is ideal.

      @Simmer_chiyen Well, I had two sims die by overheating during summer. I'm interested to see if this changes during different times of the year. I'd presume/hope so. I also had sims die because of failed repairs/cooking. I might actually create a test save in which I only enable this for my played families and thus can follow whether their skill points actually matter.
    • Options
      SERVERFRASERVERFRA Posts: 7,128 Member
      It’s made an improvement but not much of one
      It reminds me of my gameplay in Sims 3. ;)
      I just wish that there was playable babies, permanent babies, heartshape bed, spiral stairs, color wheel, Fairies, Genies & Werewolves. :'(
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      RoseRyderRoseRyder Posts: 19 Member
      It’s made an improvement but not much of one
      My neighbor sims are currently experiencing a baby boom! Which is great cuz my played sims are planning for their first baby and they need mom friends! Other than that it hasn’t changed my game play at all or added any significant depth. What I would like to see in the future is for neighbors to be able to be promoted, get fired, enter a relationship, leave a relationship, get married, get divorced and for young adult sims to be able to move out of their parents homes, find a partner and move into homes on their own! Now that would make the neighborhood stories come alive. I would love to see for example, Bella goth get remarried after Mortimer’s untimely death (I accidentally killed him but that’s another story) without my having to spend time making her do it as my hands are full with the three couples I’m already playing and they need full time babysitting
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      Calico45Calico45 Posts: 2,038 Member
      No it hasn’t added any kind of depth
      I don't like Neighborhood Stories, and hated its predecessor Story Progression, so if there is it isn't any I miss or would use.
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      Colorist40Colorist40 Posts: 7,103 Member
      edited March 2022
      @Galaticgirl you go into world map mode and click on manage households. Under each family there is a green arrow looking thing next to the heart you click on that to make adjustments for individual families. If you want to make the whole neighborhood involved, then there is a green arrow at the top of the manage household screen which allows you to set for the whole world.
      AfDRC9.jpg







    • Options
      StormkeepStormkeep Posts: 7,632 Member
      It’s made an improvement but not much of one
      @GalacticGal, one other piece of advice is to think strongly about which settings for each category (My households and Other households) you want to use the most, on the most households, and set those up first at the top level, before changing any individual households with custom settings.
      The reason for this is that once you customize a household on the household level, no changes you make at the top level will effect them. So unless you want to have to be doing all of your tweaking always for each individual households there is strong incentive to have as many households as possible set only by the top level.

      This post will be edited by StormKeep at some point.
      2c2ab3785fad83173d9a155efa4afd1fc99b9595.jpg
      The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
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      KimmerKimmer Posts: 2,383 Member
      No it hasn’t added any kind of depth
      It hasn't changed much in my game, but I've never had any lack of depth without it either.
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      SharoniaSharonia Posts: 4,853 Member
      I'm waiting for the finished feature before using it in my game. Sims seem to be adopting at an alarming rate from what I've seen of it so far.
    • Options
      StormkeepStormkeep Posts: 7,632 Member
      It’s made an improvement but not much of one
      Pet adoption, or specifically dogs, is also really out of control. I just finished cleaning up some households that had adopted so many dogs they had no room for children. One household in San Myshuno had 6 dogs! Another had 5. Only one cat total, ever, has been adopted so far in my game though...so I think something might be glitchy with the dog adoptions. :lol:

      Overall though I'm still glad for the feature, because my save file was down to having 0 dogs and 0 cats total in the entire save after having all the ones that the game started with die off from aging. It's nice to see them around the worlds again.
      This post will be edited by StormKeep at some point.
      2c2ab3785fad83173d9a155efa4afd1fc99b9595.jpg
      The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
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      Atreya33Atreya33 Posts: 4,429 Member
      It’s made an improvement but not much of one
      A lot of people have been asking for it, and because it is completely optional, I definitely consider it an improvement. For me it is not a that important, it is not a game changer but it is a nice addition because I can set it up for individual households.
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      telemwilltelemwill Posts: 1,752 Member
      I have a hard time deciding between the choices. (I know. I know. There's one in every poll.)

      I think it does completely change the dynamics of the game for those who enjoy story progression. Especially those without access to mods. It's not a change I appreciate, but I'm happy I'm allowed to opt out.

      On the other hand, I don't consider the changes made to add depth. To me depth, is something that adds personality and intention to each individual Sim. This is more of a global change and although traits may be taken into account, unless you micromanage it, the Sims current household situation, aspirations, etc. don't seem to have much effect on the results. Mostly it seems to result in chaos. Which I know some absolutely love!

      For me as a rotation player this does not improve the game at all, but hasn't had any negative effects either.
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      83bienchen83bienchen Posts: 2,578 Member
      edited March 2022
      I wasn't aware it was enabled by default for townies and lost 4 carefully made over townies with special roles in merely 1 1/2 days. I disabled the feature afterwards, because that's just too much.
      Now now EA, don't be stinking up our lovely lavender bath with your shopping fart. - My TS4 mods - Gallery ID: 83bienchen
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