They could start by having incompatible traits generate negative reactions between sims.
Right now trait incompatibility is only about incompatibly with other traits that your sims are allowed. It doesn't have much to do with incompatibility with other sims.
Try it yourself and make a Snob/Neat/Ambitious sim and a Goofball/Slob/Lazy sim and see how wonderfully they get along.
The only way for them to not live well together is if you force them.
I agree with OP. TS4 Sims are too happy happy joy joy for me. There's no real conflict. No real consequences for their actions. It's almost like they can do whatever bad they want and can get away with it. Has the emotion system gotten better since launch? Absolutely. But honestly there's no reason for it to be there because there is nothing negative that happens if a sim doesn't do anything wrong I know someone mentioned how they don't create "perfect" sims and give them traits that are different but traits in this game don't mean a thing. The only thing they do is guide sims' reaction to whatever situation is thrown their way.
They could start by having incompatible traits generate negative reactions between sims.
Right now trait incompatibility is only about incompatibly with other traits that your sims are allowed. It doesn't have much to do with incompatibility with other sims.
Try it yourself and make a Snob/Neat/Ambitious sim and a Goofball/Slob/Lazy sim and see how wonderfully they get along.
The only way for them to not live well together is if you force them.
It sort of does indirectly. Like a Snob Sims will put plates and puddle everywhere and the Neat Sims will be uncomfortable more often when living with the Snob Sims than any other Sims. But I think it could be explored more. I would like my Neat Sims to have other options than just cleaning the plates/puddles for example, like getting angry/tensed, special interactions with the Slob Sims, etc
They could start by having incompatible traits generate negative reactions between sims.
Right now trait incompatibility is only about incompatibly with other traits that your sims are allowed. It doesn't have much to do with incompatibility with other sims.
Try it yourself and make a Snob/Neat/Ambitious sim and a Goofball/Slob/Lazy sim and see how wonderfully they get along.
The only way for them to not live well together is if you force them.
It sort of does indirectly. Like a Snob Sims will put plates and puddle everywhere and the Neat Sims will be uncomfortable more often when living with the Snob Sims than any other Sims. But I think it could be explored more. I would like my Neat Sims to have other options than just cleaning the plates/puddles for example, like getting angry/tensed, special interactions with the Slob Sims, etc
It's extremely weak though, and neat sims actually like cleaning, so a slob is great because they like cleaning up after them. Also they will never get upset with the slob, only the environment, so there isn't any opportunity for social drama unless you do it yourself.
In TS2 and TS3 you were very aware when two sims with incompatible traits interacted. They let you know about it and their interactions.
In TS2 the personality points you distributed between the five traits generated a zodiac sign. The Zodiac sign would then serve to determine compatibility and determine which sim another sim was attracted to or repelled by. Sims also had interests, which also help them socialize. Sims with similar interest would speak on common topics and would continue their conversation loner.
In TS4, sims just babble, babble, babble without much rhyme of reason.
I would love for TS4 for have a system like TS2 and then layer emotions of top of that. You would see them start to pair up with sims with similar interests and their emotions would change base of who an what they were speaking about.
I agree with OP. TS4 Sims are too happy happy joy joy for me. There's no real conflict. No real consequences for their actions. It's almost like they can do whatever bad they want and can get away with it. Has the emotion system gotten better since launch? Absolutely. But honestly there's no reason for it to be there because there is nothing negative that happens if a sim doesn't do anything wrong I know someone mentioned how they don't create "perfect" sims and give them traits that are different but traits in this game don't mean a thing. The only thing they do is guide sims' reaction to whatever situation is thrown their way.
I agree with this completely! The only real emotion that is result to traits and what not, that I have seen in my game any way is the tense emotion. Shinya has the non committal trait but because he has something like 11 girlfriends at the moment, he is always tense because of the boyfriend/girlfriend status. It don't matter that he has yet been faithful to anyone yet. The closest he came was when Zoe was pregnant. She moved in and he was going to be faithful and loving father, blah blah until the baby came and he wasn't the father. Now one would think that situation would cause all kinds of drama but it didn't. The only thing that happened was Zoe kept coming around trying to get with my sim but Shinya had already moved on more then a dozen times and then some.
They could start by having incompatible traits generate negative reactions between sims.
Right now trait incompatibility is only about incompatibly with other traits that your sims are allowed. It doesn't have much to do with incompatibility with other sims.
Try it yourself and make a Snob/Neat/Ambitious sim and a Goofball/Slob/Lazy sim and see how wonderfully they get along.
The only way for them to not live well together is if you force them.
It sort of does indirectly. Like a Snob Sims will put plates and puddle everywhere and the Neat Sims will be uncomfortable more often when living with the Snob Sims than any other Sims. But I think it could be explored more. I would like my Neat Sims to have other options than just cleaning the plates/puddles for example, like getting angry/tensed, special interactions with the Slob Sims, etc
It's extremely weak though, and neat sims actually like cleaning, so a slob is great because they like cleaning up after them. Also they will never get upset with the slob, only the environment, so there isn't any opportunity for social drama unless you do it yourself.
In TS2 and TS3 you were very aware when two sims with incompatible traits interacted. They let you know about it and their interactions.
In TS2 the personality points you distributed between the five traits generated a zodiac sign. The Zodiac sign would then serve to determine compatibility and determine which sim another sim was attracted to or repelled by. Sims also had interests, which also help them socialize. Sims with similar interest would speak on common topics and would continue their conversation loner.
In TS4, sims just babble, babble, babble without much rhyme of reason.
I would love for TS4 for have a system like TS2 and then layer emotions of top of that. You would see them start to pair up with sims with similar interests and their emotions would change base of who an what they were speaking about.
Yes, it's indeed too weak for my taste. At the moment, I guess I could purposedly choose a Mean interaction to force the situation but Mean is a bit too strong for my taste. I would like a new social pie menu category like Annoying/Pain in the plumbob, with interactions to complain about things and animations that reflect this
I don't think the points were better for this though. I don't recall they reacted that much to the others' behaviors, and it didn't have much impact on my gameplay.
Went to the lounge today to play for tips,
Went with an acquaintance in hopes of earning her chips
An elder died. Everyone ciied..
and old grimmy gave me the tip....that satisfied her whim...
(OK so I plum at lymerics *this time^ but drama is drama)
I find my sims very passive aggressive. When they get divorced or break up, they are still smiling.
Daniel was cheating on Mary-sue Pleasant. Mary found out and they got divorced. Now they are living with each other. They are friends. However, try as I might, I'm unable to ever get them back together. That red romance line doesn't seem to go away.
They could start by having incompatible traits generate negative reactions between sims.
Right now trait incompatibility is only about incompatibly with other traits that your sims are allowed. It doesn't have much to do with incompatibility with other sims.
Try it yourself and make a Snob/Neat/Ambitious sim and a Goofball/Slob/Lazy sim and see how wonderfully they get along.
The only way for them to not live well together is if you force them.
It sort of does indirectly. Like a Snob Sims will put plates and puddle everywhere and the Neat Sims will be uncomfortable more often when living with the Snob Sims than any other Sims. But I think it could be explored more. I would like my Neat Sims to have other options than just cleaning the plates/puddles for example, like getting angry/tensed, special interactions with the Slob Sims, etc
It's extremely weak though, and neat sims actually like cleaning, so a slob is great because they like cleaning up after them. Also they will never get upset with the slob, only the environment, so there isn't any opportunity for social drama unless you do it yourself.
In TS2 and TS3 you were very aware when two sims with incompatible traits interacted. They let you know about it and their interactions.
In TS2 the personality points you distributed between the five traits generated a zodiac sign. The Zodiac sign would then serve to determine compatibility and determine which sim another sim was attracted to or repelled by. Sims also had interests, which also help them socialize. Sims with similar interest would speak on common topics and would continue their conversation loner.
In TS4, sims just babble, babble, babble without much rhyme of reason.
I would love for TS4 for have a system like TS2 and then layer emotions of top of that. You would see them start to pair up with sims with similar interests and their emotions would change base of who an what they were speaking about.
Yes, it's indeed too weak for my taste. At the moment, I guess I could purposedly choose a Mean interaction to force the situation but Mean is a bit too strong for my taste. I would like a new social pie menu category like Annoying/Pain in the plumbob, with interactions to complain about things and animations that reflect this
I don't think the points were better for this though. I don't recall they reacted that much to the others' behaviors, and it didn't have much impact on my gameplay.
I didn't like the point system that much either, but I did like how the zodiac signs influenced compatibility.
I do agree, OP, that the world and sims are a little too happy. Things have gotten a lot better for me with CL, since I can use lot traits to influence them, but there is still room (and need) for improvement. I think I would be a lot happier with how my sims behave if traits were more influential. My sims with the gloomy trait do get sad, but the moodlet is easily overridden by decor or the slightest thing going right. I think I'd greatly appreciate traits that influence emotions having a bit more power over environmental and circumstantial influences. Also... there just needs to be more bad stuff happening. LOL Some random deaths (like a satellite falling from the sky) and stuff like that would be awesome.
I don't really think the previous systems were any better, but I do sort of miss the attraction system from TS2. That was a lot of fun to play around with and customize (well, for me lol).
P.S. I also am not a fan of how the tense moodlet prevents sims from doing many activities. No matter how stressed out I am, I am still capable of using my computer. I may do something stupid with said computer or while working out etc because I'm feeling reckless and stress is clouding my judgement, but I can still perform the activities. I'd really like to see them lift the activity restrictions on the tense moodlet, and just increase the chances of things going very wrong for our sims when they're in that emotional state.
Ex:
A tense sim cooking increases the chance of a stove top fire.
Tense sims on the computer, increased risk of the PC breaking, electrocution, or of hacking/other computer activities failing.
Tense sim on a treadmill, increased risk of exhaustion and death etc etc.
They could start by having incompatible traits generate negative reactions between sims.
Right now trait incompatibility is only about incompatibly with other traits that your sims are allowed. It doesn't have much to do with incompatibility with other sims.
Try it yourself and make a Snob/Neat/Ambitious sim and a Goofball/Slob/Lazy sim and see how wonderfully they get along.
The only way for them to not live well together is if you force them.
It sort of does indirectly. Like a Snob Sims will put plates and puddle everywhere and the Neat Sims will be uncomfortable more often when living with the Snob Sims than any other Sims. But I think it could be explored more. I would like my Neat Sims to have other options than just cleaning the plates/puddles for example, like getting angry/tensed, special interactions with the Slob Sims, etc
It's extremely weak though, and neat sims actually like cleaning, so a slob is great because they like cleaning up after them. Also they will never get upset with the slob, only the environment, so there isn't any opportunity for social drama unless you do it yourself.
In TS2 and TS3 you were very aware when two sims with incompatible traits interacted. They let you know about it and their interactions.
In TS2 the personality points you distributed between the five traits generated a zodiac sign. The Zodiac sign would then serve to determine compatibility and determine which sim another sim was attracted to or repelled by. Sims also had interests, which also help them socialize. Sims with similar interest would speak on common topics and would continue their conversation loner.
In TS4, sims just babble, babble, babble without much rhyme of reason.
I would love for TS4 for have a system like TS2 and then layer emotions of top of that. You would see them start to pair up with sims with similar interests and their emotions would change base of who an what they were speaking about.
Yes, it's indeed too weak for my taste. At the moment, I guess I could purposedly choose a Mean interaction to force the situation but Mean is a bit too strong for my taste. I would like a new social pie menu category like Annoying/Pain in the plumbob, with interactions to complain about things and animations that reflect this
I don't think the points were better for this though. I don't recall they reacted that much to the others' behaviors, and it didn't have much impact on my gameplay.
I didn't like the point system that much either, but I did like how the zodiac signs influenced compatibility.
I never noticed the zodiac signs did anything, they seemed completely forgettable.
I think trait compatibility this could fit in an attraction system, but more in-depth, with traits/interations your Sims like/don't like. So for example you could choose if Eliza Pancakes like or not that Bob is slob. So your Sims would react negatively/positively to others' behaviors.
Yes and no, I think your playing the game a little "too well". While I do agree that sims from the sims 3 could certainly carry grudges I find in the Sims 4 I'm dealing with upset sims a lot more...maybe its because I don't bother building rooms with the perfect emotional aura. I also don't build "perfect" sims.
Actually following off that, traits play a big part of this too, instead of always picking the "best" traits to progress your sims give them a "negative social trait". Honestly its a lot more realistic too.
One of my favorite Sim house holds I used to play was with two married sims, one of which who had the jealousy trait - and oooh boy that was a interesting. Every morning I'd have the husband run out to collect stuff before she was awake, then have him run back. If she was awake when he returned she would NOT be in a good mood. This in turn made her take up angry yoga lol...
My point is while I agree its easy to play the Sims 4 with happy sims by building the perfect rooms and picking traits the only give advantages its more fun to give each sim a "negative" trait. Don't build the perfect room.
In a sense your making the game too happy by your own choices to pick the happiest sims and build a perfect happy world around them.
Don't.
Traits hardly effect lifes of these sims in this game interation. That evejnt happen because of one exception; jealousy trait that has a bigger impact or that one feature than any other traits.
Also If you think that "don't build a nice house" is a win&win solution - that makes the building and house designing much more limited. And along with that - imo it isn't realistic for a sim, like me, become from griefing over my parents death to playfull emotion just cause I happen to be in a room with full of crap (eg. vase) objects that have that emotion aura.
I do agree, OP, that the world and sims are a little too happy. Things have gotten a lot better for me with CL, since I can use lot traits to influence them, but there is still room (and need) for improvement. I think I would be a lot happier with how my sims behave if traits were more influential. My sims with the gloomy trait do get sad, but the moodlet is easily overridden by decor or the slightest thing going right. I think I'd greatly appreciate traits that influence emotions having a bit more power over environmental and circumstantial influences. Also... there just needs to be more bad stuff happening. LOL Some random deaths (like a satellite falling from the sky) and stuff like that would be awesome.
I don't really think the previous systems were any better, but I do sort of miss the attraction system from TS2. That was a lot of fun to play around with and customize (well, for me lol).
P.S. I also am not a fan of how the tense moodlet prevents sims from doing many activities. No matter how stressed out I am, I am still capable of using my computer. I may do something plum with said computer or while working out etc because I'm feeling reckless and stress is clouding my judgement, but I can still perform the activities. I'd really like to see them lift the activity restrictions on the tense moodlet, and just increase the chances of things going very wrong for our sims when they're in that emotional state.
Ex:
A tense sim cooking increases the chance of a stove top fire.
Tense sims on the computer, increased risk of the PC breaking, electrocution, or of hacking/other computer activities failing.
Tense sim on a treadmill, increased risk of exhaustion and death etc etc.
I found your post a bit confusing.
On the one hand you are lamenting the lack of adversity, yet on the other when you experience a little advaersity such as your tense Sim not wanting to do stuff...that's not in your wheelhouse?
So to be clear you want sattelites to fall on your Sims head from time to time, but you don't want them to get all moody and not write reports?
Wasn't TS4 meant to be a soap opera? What happened to that?
I have huge soap opera in my game but it took LOT of work to get it that way and the use of mods. There is a mod out there that adds more club rules which would more drama and while that mod is rather appetizing, I just think it would far to much to chew if a patch or pack broke it. Not everyone is going to go to the extent I do when setting up a new game, use mods or sit and tinker with what the game has given us until they get the desired results. It is a lot of work and in reality no one really should have to do it in the first place. Sure the emotions have improved some but they still walk around all happy. I do not like how the Sims arrive on lots with random emotions. I want my Sims to have positive or negative motions based on what they have experienced, not some emotion the game has randomized. It would be an extremely great addition to the game if our Sims could ask other Sims about their day and they get an answer as to why they feel the way they feel.
There would be more drama if emotions had more effect on sims daily lives and relationships with other sims. "Emotions" were supposed to be the main selling point for sims 4 and now that everyone has played through the game thoroughly, these emotions seem like they were more of an afterthought in game development, based on the fact that they really play no impact on the game whatsoever. The emotions are just there.
sorry but i disagree i clearly do not went drama in the game i went the sims4 to be drama free sure i like the emotions but drama in the game no thank you
If you went the sims5 to remain offline feel free to sign this petition http://chng.it/gtfHPhHK please note that it is also to keep the gallery
I do agree, OP, that the world and sims are a little too happy. Things have gotten a lot better for me with CL, since I can use lot traits to influence them, but there is still room (and need) for improvement. I think I would be a lot happier with how my sims behave if traits were more influential. My sims with the gloomy trait do get sad, but the moodlet is easily overridden by decor or the slightest thing going right. I think I'd greatly appreciate traits that influence emotions having a bit more power over environmental and circumstantial influences. Also... there just needs to be more bad stuff happening. LOL Some random deaths (like a satellite falling from the sky) and stuff like that would be awesome.
I don't really think the previous systems were any better, but I do sort of miss the attraction system from TS2. That was a lot of fun to play around with and customize (well, for me lol).
P.S. I also am not a fan of how the tense moodlet prevents sims from doing many activities. No matter how stressed out I am, I am still capable of using my computer. I may do something plum with said computer or while working out etc because I'm feeling reckless and stress is clouding my judgement, but I can still perform the activities. I'd really like to see them lift the activity restrictions on the tense moodlet, and just increase the chances of things going very wrong for our sims when they're in that emotional state.
Ex:
A tense sim cooking increases the chance of a stove top fire.
Tense sims on the computer, increased risk of the PC breaking, electrocution, or of hacking/other computer activities failing.
Tense sim on a treadmill, increased risk of exhaustion and death etc etc.
I found your post a bit confusing.
On the one hand you are lamenting the lack of adversity, yet on the other when you experience a little advaersity such as your tense Sim not wanting to do stuff...that's not in your wheelhouse?
So to be clear you want sattelites to fall on your Sims head from time to time, but you don't want them to get all moody and not write reports?
I think you definitely misunderstood me. I like the idea of the Tense moodlet, but I don't like how the Sims Team chose to just shut us out of things as a consequence for being in it. I'll try to elaborate. When you're having a bad day, does your tension prevent you from being able to use your computer or treadmill? It doesn't... so what I'm saying, is that instead of totally shutting our sims down when they're tense and not allowing them to do most of the actions that exist in the game (which is the opposite of drama/adversity and is actually terribly boring) allow us to use the objects, but make failure states more likely to occur. It just seems like a more natural state of things. Just because we become tense as human beings doesn't make us incapable of utilizing the objects in our environment... it can perhaps impair our judgement, though, and make the likelihood of failure or mistakes more common. I just think that would make a far more enjoyable and rewarding experience for me as a simmer than the current system of simply being locked out of doing anything at all. There is no drama or anything of interest to be had in that... at least not for me.
When my sim is tense... I want her to be able to write her children's book anyway, and I want the odds of it being terrible to be higher.
... when she uses the treadmill, I want the odds of her becoming unnaturally exhausted and possibly dying to be greater.
... when she tries to hack via the computer, the odds of her failing or getting caught to be higher.
... when she cooks, the odds of a grease fire to be greater.
... when she tries to fix something, the odds of it backfiring and her being electrocuted being higher.
You get the idea. These are all things my sim is not allowed to do if she's tense... I would like for her to be able to perform the actions anyway, and when she does, have a high chance of failing them (and thus making her situation even worse). I just think it would be more fun (at least for me) to see her failing at something while she's tense, then to see her doing nothing at all when she's tense. It's ok if you don't agree, but this is just my take on the matter.
This has probably been discussed before, (and if so, I apologize for being repetitive) but don't you think that our sims are a bit too happy? For a game that centers itself around emotions it's pretty darn difficult to make our sims feel anything besides happiness.
It was probably the developers' decision to make the game happy and uplifting, but, for a player who enjoys storytelling, it can be a little frustrating that a good meal + a well decorated room have a bigger impact on the emotion of the sims than the death of a relative. I wish sims would feel angry after an offensive conversation no matter how comfortable their bed was that night! Etc etc You know what I mean?
Make then grumpy and crazy - Ooooohhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!! I must go make a new sims now . . . .. . . ha ha ha
This has probably been discussed before, (and if so, I apologize for being repetitive) but don't you think that our sims are a bit too happy? For a game that centers itself around emotions it's pretty darn difficult to make our sims feel anything besides happiness.
It was probably the developers' decision to make the game happy and uplifting, but, for a player who enjoys storytelling, it can be a little frustrating that a good meal + a well decorated room have a bigger impact on the emotion of the sims than the death of a relative. I wish sims would feel angry after an offensive conversation no matter how comfortable their bed was that night! Etc etc You know what I mean?
I definitely agree with your thoughts. It's one of the biggest shortcomings in TS4 in my opinion. For a game that simulates life, it's just not realistic for the sims to be happy all the time. I mean, I enjoy the positive emotions in the game and I can understand if they were trying to make the game more of a reprieve from the stress in our own lives, but this area (along with many others) could use some improvement. I mentioned it in my post on another thread that I also dislike that the traits can end up playing very little to virtually no role in the way a sim acts and how easily manipulated TS4 sims are in general. With the right environment, a decent meal, or even an object with an enabled emotional aura, you can turn a sim with a very negative trait like the Evil trait into a sweetheart, and that's just off-putting. Since I really enjoy the story telling aspect of the game, I've been able to generate some drama, I just wish I didn't have to read between the lines or force drama so frequently. It's okay occasionally, and I'm not saying I didn't have to do the same in the TS3 from time to time, but TS4 definitely requires more creativity on the player's part to make it more enjoyable. That's not a huge drawback for me personally, but I can totally understand why it is for others.
I'd love to see the reputation system make a comeback (with adjustments; it was far too finicky at times in TS3) and like Jordojord said, I think memories would be a nice addition again. For example, it'd be really cool if a sim with the memory of a loved one passing would occasionally have days where they are again mourning long after said loved one has passed. I really want to see more intuitive traits that noticeably influence your sims' emotions and how they treat others. Like maybe a sim with the hot-headed trait will randomly have a bad day (and not a puny 4 hr. +1 angry moodlet that ends up overridden by a pretty painting and exhilarating shower). I know that I have quite a temper myself and I could be perfectly happy one moment but then something super small and tedious could go wrong and I'll be in a horrible mood the rest of the day. I'd like it if the sims were like that too. Maybe a glass falls off the kitchen counter and everyone around them will need to watch out since that little occurrence was just what was needed to tip them over the edge. Or maybe a sim with the Good trait will occasionally feel sad after watching the news and seeing all the wars and turmoil happening in the world around them. The type of drama that's fueled by your sims' traits, memories, and how they're feeling in that moment would be really awesome to see and I think it'd not only really add a sense of realism, but also spice things up from time to time.
They could start by having incompatible traits generate negative reactions between sims.
Right now trait incompatibility is only about incompatibly with other traits that your sims are allowed. It doesn't have much to do with incompatibility with other sims.
Try it yourself and make a Snob/Neat/Ambitious sim and a Goofball/Slob/Lazy sim and see how wonderfully they get along.
The only way for them to not live well together is if you force them.
I think, and this is just conjecture on my part, that the OP wants more spontaneous reactions. Forcing a Sim to cry over a dead Sim that's right in front of them is really pushing it. Challenge comes from the unexpected. Knowing your Sims will always default immediately into a happy state doesn't make anything particularly challenging.
@Ceres_Meiriona
That's a really interesting idea, tensed at the moment is a bit frustrating, especially when your Sims is tensed because of the fun need, because it completely disabled some activities, so I feel a bit forced to "fix" it right away. Less restrictions but more negative outcomes could be more interesting I think. That's how it works for the Angry emotion already, isn't it ?
@Neia It is a bit frustrating, especially with the new deviant (and really fun) lot traits. My sims spend a lot of time Tense, and I like that, because it's something other than Happy, but as I've cruised through this emotional state it seems to act more like a road block than an emotional state to be explored like the others. The only unique interactions for to it seem to be to vent or complain about problems.
You are correct, with the angry emotion you can paint angry emotional decor and have access to unique exercise/culinary options. I very much enjoy the unique interactions that accompany some of the emotions in the game, and I wish there were more of them. It would be wonderful for my sim if she was able to throw a pity party or request sympathy woohoo (actually maybe that would go with sad better lol).
It's not so bothersome that I'd stop playing the game, but it is frustrating enough that I find it worth bringing up possible changes. I would love to see the Tense emotion have more unique options (via unique interactions) or consequences (failure states being more common).
I've seen my sim "Drink with Desperation" when they're feeling sad or tense (I think it shows up with the Angry emotion as well). These little details are fun things to discover in the game for me. I'm sure they go unnoticed by many simmers, but I get a real kick out of them. I wish there were more of them. So even if the devs chose to blanket the unique interactions (like they did with this one, since it shows up across several different emotional states), more of this kind of stuff would make me one happy simmer.
I wish for more drama too- I can't play this game for hours like I use to with sims 2. Sims in sims 2 would get themselves into so much trouble when left unattended lol
They could start by having incompatible traits generate negative reactions between sims.
Right now trait incompatibility is only about incompatibly with other traits that your sims are allowed. It doesn't have much to do with incompatibility with other sims.
Try it yourself and make a Snob/Neat/Ambitious sim and a Goofball/Slob/Lazy sim and see how wonderfully they get along.
The only way for them to not live well together is if you force them.
I think, and this is just conjecture on my part, that the OP wants more spontaneous reactions. Forcing a Sim to cry over a dead Sim that's right in front of them is really pushing it. Challenge comes from the unexpected. Knowing your Sims will always default immediately into a happy state doesn't make anything particularly challenging.
I was replying more to the title of the thread which is: I wish there was more drama!
I think these sims do respond to emotional to situations, but they too distracted by multitasking and happiness modifiers to respond consistently. This makes for hit or miss situations. That could take some tuning.
What is missing when it comes to drama is negative interactions of sims with incompatible traits.
Comments
Right now trait incompatibility is only about incompatibly with other traits that your sims are allowed. It doesn't have much to do with incompatibility with other sims.
Try it yourself and make a Snob/Neat/Ambitious sim and a Goofball/Slob/Lazy sim and see how wonderfully they get along.
The only way for them to not live well together is if you force them.
It sort of does indirectly. Like a Snob Sims will put plates and puddle everywhere and the Neat Sims will be uncomfortable more often when living with the Snob Sims than any other Sims. But I think it could be explored more. I would like my Neat Sims to have other options than just cleaning the plates/puddles for example, like getting angry/tensed, special interactions with the Slob Sims, etc
It's extremely weak though, and neat sims actually like cleaning, so a slob is great because they like cleaning up after them. Also they will never get upset with the slob, only the environment, so there isn't any opportunity for social drama unless you do it yourself.
In TS2 and TS3 you were very aware when two sims with incompatible traits interacted. They let you know about it and their interactions.
In TS2 the personality points you distributed between the five traits generated a zodiac sign. The Zodiac sign would then serve to determine compatibility and determine which sim another sim was attracted to or repelled by. Sims also had interests, which also help them socialize. Sims with similar interest would speak on common topics and would continue their conversation loner.
In TS4, sims just babble, babble, babble without much rhyme of reason.
I would love for TS4 for have a system like TS2 and then layer emotions of top of that. You would see them start to pair up with sims with similar interests and their emotions would change base of who an what they were speaking about.
I agree with this completely! The only real emotion that is result to traits and what not, that I have seen in my game any way is the tense emotion. Shinya has the non committal trait but because he has something like 11 girlfriends at the moment, he is always tense because of the boyfriend/girlfriend status. It don't matter that he has yet been faithful to anyone yet. The closest he came was when Zoe was pregnant. She moved in and he was going to be faithful and loving father, blah blah until the baby came and he wasn't the father. Now one would think that situation would cause all kinds of drama but it didn't. The only thing that happened was Zoe kept coming around trying to get with my sim but Shinya had already moved on more then a dozen times and then some.
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Yes, it's indeed too weak for my taste. At the moment, I guess I could purposedly choose a Mean interaction to force the situation but Mean is a bit too strong for my taste. I would like a new social pie menu category like Annoying/Pain in the plumbob, with interactions to complain about things and animations that reflect this
I don't think the points were better for this though. I don't recall they reacted that much to the others' behaviors, and it didn't have much impact on my gameplay.
Went with an acquaintance in hopes of earning her chips
An elder died. Everyone ciied..
and old grimmy gave me the tip....that satisfied her whim...
(OK so I plum at lymerics *this time^ but drama is drama)
Daniel was cheating on Mary-sue Pleasant. Mary found out and they got divorced. Now they are living with each other. They are friends. However, try as I might, I'm unable to ever get them back together. That red romance line doesn't seem to go away.
I didn't like the point system that much either, but I did like how the zodiac signs influenced compatibility.
I don't really think the previous systems were any better, but I do sort of miss the attraction system from TS2. That was a lot of fun to play around with and customize (well, for me lol).
P.S. I also am not a fan of how the tense moodlet prevents sims from doing many activities. No matter how stressed out I am, I am still capable of using my computer. I may do something stupid with said computer or while working out etc because I'm feeling reckless and stress is clouding my judgement, but I can still perform the activities. I'd really like to see them lift the activity restrictions on the tense moodlet, and just increase the chances of things going very wrong for our sims when they're in that emotional state.
Ex:
A tense sim cooking increases the chance of a stove top fire.
Tense sims on the computer, increased risk of the PC breaking, electrocution, or of hacking/other computer activities failing.
Tense sim on a treadmill, increased risk of exhaustion and death etc etc.
I never noticed the zodiac signs did anything, they seemed completely forgettable.
I think trait compatibility this could fit in an attraction system, but more in-depth, with traits/interations your Sims like/don't like. So for example you could choose if Eliza Pancakes like or not that Bob is slob. So your Sims would react negatively/positively to others' behaviors.
Also If you think that "don't build a nice house" is a win&win solution - that makes the building and house designing much more limited. And along with that - imo it isn't realistic for a sim, like me, become from griefing over my parents death to playfull emotion just cause I happen to be in a room with full of crap (eg. vase) objects that have that emotion aura.
I found your post a bit confusing.
On the one hand you are lamenting the lack of adversity, yet on the other when you experience a little advaersity such as your tense Sim not wanting to do stuff...that's not in your wheelhouse?
So to be clear you want sattelites to fall on your Sims head from time to time, but you don't want them to get all moody and not write reports?
I have huge soap opera in my game but it took LOT of work to get it that way and the use of mods. There is a mod out there that adds more club rules which would more drama and while that mod is rather appetizing, I just think it would far to much to chew if a patch or pack broke it. Not everyone is going to go to the extent I do when setting up a new game, use mods or sit and tinker with what the game has given us until they get the desired results. It is a lot of work and in reality no one really should have to do it in the first place. Sure the emotions have improved some but they still walk around all happy. I do not like how the Sims arrive on lots with random emotions. I want my Sims to have positive or negative motions based on what they have experienced, not some emotion the game has randomized. It would be an extremely great addition to the game if our Sims could ask other Sims about their day and they get an answer as to why they feel the way they feel.
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I think you definitely misunderstood me. I like the idea of the Tense moodlet, but I don't like how the Sims Team chose to just shut us out of things as a consequence for being in it. I'll try to elaborate. When you're having a bad day, does your tension prevent you from being able to use your computer or treadmill? It doesn't... so what I'm saying, is that instead of totally shutting our sims down when they're tense and not allowing them to do most of the actions that exist in the game (which is the opposite of drama/adversity and is actually terribly boring) allow us to use the objects, but make failure states more likely to occur. It just seems like a more natural state of things. Just because we become tense as human beings doesn't make us incapable of utilizing the objects in our environment... it can perhaps impair our judgement, though, and make the likelihood of failure or mistakes more common. I just think that would make a far more enjoyable and rewarding experience for me as a simmer than the current system of simply being locked out of doing anything at all. There is no drama or anything of interest to be had in that... at least not for me.
When my sim is tense... I want her to be able to write her children's book anyway, and I want the odds of it being terrible to be higher.
... when she uses the treadmill, I want the odds of her becoming unnaturally exhausted and possibly dying to be greater.
... when she tries to hack via the computer, the odds of her failing or getting caught to be higher.
... when she cooks, the odds of a grease fire to be greater.
... when she tries to fix something, the odds of it backfiring and her being electrocuted being higher.
You get the idea. These are all things my sim is not allowed to do if she's tense... I would like for her to be able to perform the actions anyway, and when she does, have a high chance of failing them (and thus making her situation even worse). I just think it would be more fun (at least for me) to see her failing at something while she's tense, then to see her doing nothing at all when she's tense. It's ok if you don't agree, but this is just my take on the matter.
Make then grumpy and crazy - Ooooohhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!! I must go make a new sims now . . . .. . . ha ha ha
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I'd love to see the reputation system make a comeback (with adjustments; it was far too finicky at times in TS3) and like Jordojord said, I think memories would be a nice addition again. For example, it'd be really cool if a sim with the memory of a loved one passing would occasionally have days where they are again mourning long after said loved one has passed. I really want to see more intuitive traits that noticeably influence your sims' emotions and how they treat others. Like maybe a sim with the hot-headed trait will randomly have a bad day (and not a puny 4 hr. +1 angry moodlet that ends up overridden by a pretty painting and exhilarating shower). I know that I have quite a temper myself and I could be perfectly happy one moment but then something super small and tedious could go wrong and I'll be in a horrible mood the rest of the day. I'd like it if the sims were like that too. Maybe a glass falls off the kitchen counter and everyone around them will need to watch out since that little occurrence was just what was needed to tip them over the edge. Or maybe a sim with the Good trait will occasionally feel sad after watching the news and seeing all the wars and turmoil happening in the world around them. The type of drama that's fueled by your sims' traits, memories, and how they're feeling in that moment would be really awesome to see and I think it'd not only really add a sense of realism, but also spice things up from time to time.
I think, and this is just conjecture on my part, that the OP wants more spontaneous reactions. Forcing a Sim to cry over a dead Sim that's right in front of them is really pushing it. Challenge comes from the unexpected. Knowing your Sims will always default immediately into a happy state doesn't make anything particularly challenging.
That's a really interesting idea, tensed at the moment is a bit frustrating, especially when your Sims is tensed because of the fun need, because it completely disabled some activities, so I feel a bit forced to "fix" it right away. Less restrictions but more negative outcomes could be more interesting I think. That's how it works for the Angry emotion already, isn't it ?
You are correct, with the angry emotion you can paint angry emotional decor and have access to unique exercise/culinary options. I very much enjoy the unique interactions that accompany some of the emotions in the game, and I wish there were more of them. It would be wonderful for my sim if she was able to throw a pity party or request sympathy woohoo (actually maybe that would go with sad better lol).
It's not so bothersome that I'd stop playing the game, but it is frustrating enough that I find it worth bringing up possible changes. I would love to see the Tense emotion have more unique options (via unique interactions) or consequences (failure states being more common).
I've seen my sim "Drink with Desperation" when they're feeling sad or tense (I think it shows up with the Angry emotion as well). These little details are fun things to discover in the game for me. I'm sure they go unnoticed by many simmers, but I get a real kick out of them. I wish there were more of them.
I was replying more to the title of the thread which is: I wish there was more drama!
I think these sims do respond to emotional to situations, but they too distracted by multitasking and happiness modifiers to respond consistently. This makes for hit or miss situations. That could take some tuning.
What is missing when it comes to drama is negative interactions of sims with incompatible traits.