I think the "Manage Households" feature is very underrated... mostly because a lot of people don't really know about it or how it actually works. It's definitely a really awesome feature for players (such as myself) who want their worlds filled with families that progress, but also don't really wanna play more than one household at a time. This is something I've always kinda wanted in The Sims... and was so happy to see it introduced in Sims 4!
I love being able to play one household, while also making sure other families in the world(s) can have kids, get married, etc... without me actually playing them. Also, the fact that I can actually give them nice looking houses without using money cheats is amazing as well!
Head shape presets! I had never really used them before, but now I swear by them. They can completely change the look of a face and are CAS lifesavers.
I can't say enough about rotational play. I rarely play just one household and rotational play keeps me much more entertained than just one household ever could.
The calls you get from sims when they invite you out.
My sim made a friendly introduction to Akira Kibo when he was in a bad mood, he was not nice to her at all and their relationship bar went red. The next day he called to say they hadn't always got along but they should go out for dinner, she accepted. Now they are happily married with 2 kids, 2 cats and a dog.
This is an unpopular opinion, but even if I'm the only one, I'm glad about the gender patch - not for the obvious reasons, at least not mainly, but because while playing TS2 I always wondered why so many pieces of clothing could only be worn by one gender, even though they looked perfectly fine on the other, too. It was the same with hairstyles, sometimes I wanted a female sim to wear her hair in a specific way that was only available to males, or vice versa, so I had to download lots of CC to make it work. Gosh, that was annoying! Luckily, those times are over, and now, if I feel like putting a man in a dress for whatever reason, I can just do it - my drag comedian certainly loves it!
@GrumpyGlowfish I like this feature as well, but also for the obvious reasons.
Origin: ShadyLady1989 | please feel free to add/friend me! Sims 4 Blog Don't feed trolls. Do feed cowplants.
CAS in TS4 is great when you look at possibilities it give while creating a Sim, but I also love how it's organized: that in one loading screen I have acces to the whole family, I can change every one of them, including make up and hats (which go with every hairstyle!). And of course that we have not only the categories, but also subcategories. It makes things so much easier and more pleasant in my opinion.
@MissNightOwl You are absolutely correct! I often overlook the fact that you can edit every family member at once, and that is a beautiful feature.
Origin: ShadyLady1989 | please feel free to add/friend me! Sims 4 Blog Don't feed trolls. Do feed cowplants.
I like how families/couples will often visit restaurants and other venues together. I also like how random sims will also go places together.
My sim's ex girlfriend's marriage broke down because of her emotionally unstable trait that she gained after a difficult adolescence. My sim then went out for a meal and saw her on a date with another guy. The guy was already married, (which was kinda hypocritical because the ex's marriage ended because her husband cheated on her) and it wasn't going well because he got berated all meal and left very quickly. It just adds flavour to my sims.
I also like clubs. The same sim of mine encountered a sim at the gym who was quite overweight. Both of them were geeks, but the chubby sim (Arvid) tended to use the gym's computers rather than the exercise machines. My sim's fitness was high enough where he could mentor Arvid, and they ended up becoming best friends and forming a fitness club. Most of the members are adults now, so they meet up now and again to work out and talk about work/family before being slightly cheeky and having an after-workout meal at the local pizza place. Arvid is very fit now and he autonomously works out/goes to the gym even when there's no club meeting compelling him to be there. So, sim behaviour does change depending on what you make them do.
@Lishacake I have not had a child born in game grow up yet and acquire the character values, but the more I hear about it, the more excited I become for this. I play so many different families at one time, it takes me a bit to get them moved along, but I don't mind.
Origin: ShadyLady1989 | please feel free to add/friend me! Sims 4 Blog Don't feed trolls. Do feed cowplants.
I think the "Manage Households" feature is very underrated... mostly because a lot of people don't really know about it or how it actually works. It's definitely a really awesome feature for players (such as myself) who want their worlds filled with families that progress, but also don't really wanna play more than one household at a time. This is something I've always kinda wanted in The Sims... and was so happy to see it introduced in Sims 4!
I love being able to play one household, while also making sure other families in the world(s) can have kids, get married, etc... without me actually playing them. Also, the fact that I can actually give them nice looking houses without using money cheats is amazing as well!
@Lustianicia I definitely agree Manage Households is underrated! I love it, I rarely move sims using the move household option on the phone, because I'm rarely ever moving the entire household.
Origin: ShadyLady1989 | please feel free to add/friend me! Sims 4 Blog Don't feed trolls. Do feed cowplants.
The calls you get from sims when they invite you out.
My sim made a friendly introduction to Akira Kibo when he was in a bad mood, he was not nice to her at all and their relationship bar went red. The next day he called to say they hadn't always got along but they should go out for dinner, she accepted. Now they are happily married with 2 kids, 2 cats and a dog.
One of my favorite things about the sims 4 is the improved routing! I love how sims can just walk through each other instead of waiting for someone to move out of the way. Gone are the days of the endless foot stomping and arm waving of the sims 3! For the most part, anyway. I still run into arm waving when two sims try to use the same object, such as the fridge, but it's not that bad.
One of my favorite things about the sims 4 is the improved routing! I love how sims can just walk through each other instead of waiting for someone to move out of the way. Gone are the days of the endless foot stomping and arm waving of the sims 3! For the most part, anyway. I still run into arm waving when two sims try to use the same object, such as the fridge, but it's not that bad.
I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but I love the fact that you can place/move furniture while a sim is in the way or using it. It makes everything so much more convenient. I went back to playing ts2 for a bit and I forgot how annoying it was to have to move the whole family outside the house before you change up the furniture.
Also I love the relationship statuses sims have (in the parenthood pack) with their parents and siblings once they grow up based on how they were raised. I've only ended up with neutral or positive ones, but I think it's a really cool addition. It makes me feel like there's more to the relationships than just being positive or negative.
I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but I love the fact that you can place/move furniture while a sim is in the way or using it. It makes everything so much more convenient. I went back to playing ts2 for a bit and I forgot how annoying it was to have to move the whole family outside the house before you change up the furniture.
Also I love the relationship statuses sims have (in the parenthood pack) with their parents and siblings once they grow up based on how they were raised. I've only ended up with neutral or positive ones, but I think it's a really cool addition. It makes me feel like there's more to the relationships than just being positive or negative.
@takenbysheep that had not been mentioned yet, but it's a marvelous point. TS2 was tedious with the way you had to do things just to switch some things up. I didn't spend nearly as much time redesigning my sims homes as I do now in TS4.
Origin: ShadyLady1989 | please feel free to add/friend me! Sims 4 Blog Don't feed trolls. Do feed cowplants.
I like that aspirations are more relaxed so you can play without completing them if you want. I find them tedious so I hardly ever fully complete any and my sims don't go crazy. I love that we can kind of decide what to focus on without it being necessary and there's lots of freedom for whatever gameplay we prefer
My favourite thing is the gallery because I can't build and don't really enjoy it at all.
I love how fast cas is? In Sims 3 my cas was a big laggy mess.
Speaking of cas I love that the hairs and clothes we have are nice enough to not need cc. Sims 3 was uhhh... yeah
I love how easy it is to download cc too without that installing it through the launcher business
I love the club system for keeping my families together if I decide to move kids out. I usually have a family club to keep in touch because I kind of forget
I find it incredibly easier to build in ts4 period! The UI is cleaner and prettier and everything seems a lot simpler in 4.
Build/Buy was a huge improvement overall!! And I’m a sucker for a clean and crisps UI and graphics.
This. I feel like if you are good at building at the Sims, you can make amazing things (I'm looking at you, TheSimSupply). But if the building is not your strongest side, you can still make decent looking houses with a little effort. And even if I'm struggling a bit sometimes, I still find it quite enjoyable to mess around in B/B mode (and that wasn't always the case in previous iteration).
On the side note, I know there are still things missing for our builders simmers, like for example different shapes of stairs. I hope we can expect more improvements for you in the future
I know it's been mentioned but the club system is wonderful. There are so many uses for it. The free patch group system is good too to keep sims together easier .. I use it often for little welcome wagon or little gatherings... and it's not in game yet but I really have a feeling the calendar is going to be on par with the group system. I love any measure of control over our sims and their lives that they put in this game.
On that note, it's probably been mentioned, but I adore the gallery and other players' endless amounts of creativity I build many lots for my game myself but I just love thinking "hm I need a 30x20 spa" and being able to quickly find an appropriate one on the gallery and to plop it down right away. Cause I truly suck at building spas. Actually found a very beautiful one on the gallery the other day, I'll share the link here later cause it's just too awesome not to.
The half-open world - coming from TS2, (I skipped 3 altogether because no.) this is awesome. It is actually half-open, and sims can explore quite a large surrounding area off the lot. They can walk out and go fishing somewhere across the road, or meet other sims in the park - it's just really nice. I know some folks are really, really angry about the lack of a fully open world, but personally (and this is JUST ME) the half-open world is enough for me.
Toddlers - Toddlers are sooooooo adorable in TS4. Like, perfectly done - it's hard to beat the TS2 toddlers, but 4 gives them just enough babyness and just enough precociousness to make them SUPER cute.
CAS - the CAS in TS4 gives me life. My sims feel fully customizable and I can make them look like ANYTHING I want. No hats with hair, a fully customizable wardrobe, easy to edit clothing cc, and just so many more options for sorting and availability. I really think people sleep on how powerful it is. And for body types, it's by far the best CAS of the series.
Multitasking - someone else mentioned this, but I love that my sims can talk to each other while they're cooking, or watch tv and cuddle, or listen to music while working on the computer. These are small things that are actually quite realistic.
Changing outfits autonomously - this is one of my favourite things in the game. If I could have this in TS2 I'd be in real trouble lol. I love that my sims will choose an outfit from their wardrobe autonomously when they shower. I can give them a real wardrobe, with some pieces clothes and shoes repeated and see them 'wear' them to different places. It's perfect and awesome.
The weight gain - I actually love this. I've tweaked it in my game with mods to keep it more realistic, but I love that my junk-loving sims will get bigger, and that sims who work out become more muscular. I even love that teens are slimmer on the whole and will lose weight quickly (I was like that as a teen).
The Monster under the bed - this is freaking adorable. I'm sorry, it's so cute it's crazy. I love it.
Making Messes - see above. Toddlers and little kids make messes. I love that it's a thing, and that it stays there until some long-suffering adult sim comes along to clean it up and chastise the little monkey for being naughty. That's how kids are. It's awesome.
Parenthood traits - this is perfect. I've always wanted to have my sims actually 'parent' their kids and this gp does the job and then some. Again, I've tweaked this with mods as I like my sims realistically disfunctional, but If parents aren't very good about keeping an eye on the little ones, they grow up with some bad habits. Couldn't be more perfect.The only thing I'd want to add here is something like a 'wets the bed' action if the toddler isn't potty trained, and 'mumbles' if they aren't taught to speak - something like that.
Vampires - FINALLY WE HAVE DECENT VAMPIRES THAT ACTUALLY DO THINGS! I love the vampires in this game. I wish Aliens were more fleshed out, and I'm holding out hard for a good witch/fairy/werewolf supernatural to complete the set. The only thing I would want here is a couple of Vampire actions for toddlers and children (similar to TS3.)
I like that aspirations are more relaxed so you can play without completing them if you want. I find them tedious so I hardly ever fully complete any and my sims don't go crazy. I love that we can kind of decide what to focus on without it being necessary and there's lots of freedom for whatever gameplay we prefer
My favourite thing is the gallery because I can't build and don't really enjoy it at all.
I love how fast cas is? In Sims 3 my cas was a big laggy mess.
Speaking of cas I love that the hairs and clothes we have are nice enough to not need cc. Sims 3 was uhhh... yeah
I love how easy it is to download cc too without that installing it through the launcher business
I love the club system for keeping my families together if I decide to move kids out. I usually have a family club to keep in touch because I kind of forget
@Anastaciasgem You are absolutely correct about the aspirations! It is wonderful to play more relaxed and not have to deal with sims losing their marbles if you don't complete an aspiration.
Origin: ShadyLady1989 | please feel free to add/friend me! Sims 4 Blog Don't feed trolls. Do feed cowplants.
I like that aspirations are more relaxed so you can play without completing them if you want. I find them tedious so I hardly ever fully complete any and my sims don't go crazy. I love that we can kind of decide what to focus on without it being necessary and there's lots of freedom for whatever gameplay we prefer
My favourite thing is the gallery because I can't build and don't really enjoy it at all.
I love how fast cas is? In Sims 3 my cas was a big laggy mess.
Speaking of cas I love that the hairs and clothes we have are nice enough to not need cc. Sims 3 was uhhh... yeah
I love how easy it is to download cc too without that installing it through the launcher business
I love the club system for keeping my families together if I decide to move kids out. I usually have a family club to keep in touch because I kind of forget
@Anastaciasgem You are absolutely correct about the aspirations! It is wonderful to play more relaxed and not have to deal with sims losing their marbles if you don't complete an aspiration.
I do feel a bit nostalgic for the sack babies and the dumpster-diving, but changing aspirations on the fly has become a major part of game play. If I've got a Sim with a parenting aspiration and the next step is to help a kid with homework, but the kid is still a toddler, I can switch to something else and keep gaining those aspiration points. (There's a really nice aspiration hack-cheat: give your Sims the wealth aspiration and use motherlode to start your Sim household with $300,000. The Sim you've selected will immediately achieve the wealth aspriation and gain enough points to get the 'seldom sleepy' reward. Select other Sims in the household and repeat. Gives everyone more time to do stuff instead of watching them sleep.)
Comments
I love being able to play one household, while also making sure other families in the world(s) can have kids, get married, etc... without me actually playing them. Also, the fact that I can actually give them nice looking houses without using money cheats is amazing as well!
Sims 1: Hot Date
Sims 2: Seasons
Sims 2: Happy Holiday Stuff
Sims 3: Seasons
Sims 3: 70's, 80's, & 90's Stuff
Sims 4: Seasons
Sims 4: Paranormal Stuff
Sims 4: Strangerville Game Pack
I can't say enough about rotational play. I rarely play just one household and rotational play keeps me much more entertained than just one household ever could.
My sim made a friendly introduction to Akira Kibo when he was in a bad mood, he was not nice to her at all and their relationship bar went red. The next day he called to say they hadn't always got along but they should go out for dinner, she accepted. Now they are happily married with 2 kids, 2 cats and a dog.
@GrumpyGlowfish I like this feature as well, but also for the obvious reasons.
Sims 4 Blog
Don't feed trolls. Do feed cowplants.
@MissNightOwl You are absolutely correct! I often overlook the fact that you can edit every family member at once, and that is a beautiful feature.
Sims 4 Blog
Don't feed trolls. Do feed cowplants.
@Kai I'm with you on them incorporating Build/Buy into one feature. It's such a simple thing, and often overlooked as a great feature.
Sims 4 Blog
Don't feed trolls. Do feed cowplants.
@Lishacake I have not had a child born in game grow up yet and acquire the character values, but the more I hear about it, the more excited I become for this. I play so many different families at one time, it takes me a bit to get them moved along, but I don't mind.
Sims 4 Blog
Don't feed trolls. Do feed cowplants.
@Lustianicia I definitely agree Manage Households is underrated! I love it, I rarely move sims using the move household option on the phone, because I'm rarely ever moving the entire household.
Sims 4 Blog
Don't feed trolls. Do feed cowplants.
@kittymeow That is awesome! lol
Sims 4 Blog
Don't feed trolls. Do feed cowplants.
@iliekponiez I could not agree with you more!
Sims 4 Blog
Don't feed trolls. Do feed cowplants.
Also I love the relationship statuses sims have (in the parenthood pack) with their parents and siblings once they grow up based on how they were raised. I've only ended up with neutral or positive ones, but I think it's a really cool addition. It makes me feel like there's more to the relationships than just being positive or negative.
@takenbysheep that had not been mentioned yet, but it's a marvelous point. TS2 was tedious with the way you had to do things just to switch some things up. I didn't spend nearly as much time redesigning my sims homes as I do now in TS4.
Sims 4 Blog
Don't feed trolls. Do feed cowplants.
My favourite thing is the gallery because I can't build and don't really enjoy it at all.
I love how fast cas is? In Sims 3 my cas was a big laggy mess.
Speaking of cas I love that the hairs and clothes we have are nice enough to not need cc. Sims 3 was uhhh... yeah
I love how easy it is to download cc too without that installing it through the launcher business
I love the club system for keeping my families together if I decide to move kids out. I usually have a family club to keep in touch because I kind of forget
Origin ID: Gemmaisasim
The Minogue ISBI family tree
This. I feel like if you are good at building at the Sims, you can make amazing things (I'm looking at you, TheSimSupply). But if the building is not your strongest side, you can still make decent looking houses with a little effort. And even if I'm struggling a bit sometimes, I still find it quite enjoyable to mess around in B/B mode (and that wasn't always the case in previous iteration).
On the side note, I know there are still things missing for our builders simmers, like for example different shapes of stairs. I hope we can expect more improvements for you in the future
Hm that's interesting. Didn't know that.
@Lustianicia agreed! I like the feature as well.
On that note, it's probably been mentioned, but I adore the gallery and other players' endless amounts of creativity
ETA: here it is https://www.ea.com/en-gb/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/pc/gallery/DEABE52FF5B911E780F29154F725A001
Idk I just think it looks really nice! Especially in this spot in BB below (see arrow
The half-open world - coming from TS2, (I skipped 3 altogether because no.) this is awesome. It is actually half-open, and sims can explore quite a large surrounding area off the lot. They can walk out and go fishing somewhere across the road, or meet other sims in the park - it's just really nice. I know some folks are really, really angry about the lack of a fully open world, but personally (and this is JUST ME) the half-open world is enough for me.
Toddlers - Toddlers are sooooooo adorable in TS4. Like, perfectly done - it's hard to beat the TS2 toddlers, but 4 gives them just enough babyness and just enough precociousness to make them SUPER cute.
CAS - the CAS in TS4 gives me life. My sims feel fully customizable and I can make them look like ANYTHING I want. No hats with hair, a fully customizable wardrobe, easy to edit clothing cc, and just so many more options for sorting and availability. I really think people sleep on how powerful it is. And for body types, it's by far the best CAS of the series.
Multitasking - someone else mentioned this, but I love that my sims can talk to each other while they're cooking, or watch tv and cuddle, or listen to music while working on the computer. These are small things that are actually quite realistic.
Changing outfits autonomously - this is one of my favourite things in the game. If I could have this in TS2 I'd be in real trouble lol. I love that my sims will choose an outfit from their wardrobe autonomously when they shower. I can give them a real wardrobe, with some pieces clothes and shoes repeated and see them 'wear' them to different places. It's perfect and awesome.
The weight gain - I actually love this. I've tweaked it in my game with mods to keep it more realistic, but I love that my junk-loving sims will get bigger, and that sims who work out become more muscular. I even love that teens are slimmer on the whole and will lose weight quickly (I was like that as a teen).
The Monster under the bed - this is freaking adorable. I'm sorry, it's so cute it's crazy. I love it.
Making Messes - see above. Toddlers and little kids make messes. I love that it's a thing, and that it stays there until some long-suffering adult sim comes along to clean it up and chastise the little monkey for being naughty. That's how kids are. It's awesome.
Parenthood traits - this is perfect. I've always wanted to have my sims actually 'parent' their kids and this gp does the job and then some. Again, I've tweaked this with mods as I like my sims realistically disfunctional, but If parents aren't very good about keeping an eye on the little ones, they grow up with some bad habits. Couldn't be more perfect.The only thing I'd want to add here is something like a 'wets the bed' action if the toddler isn't potty trained, and 'mumbles' if they aren't taught to speak - something like that.
Vampires - FINALLY WE HAVE DECENT VAMPIRES THAT ACTUALLY DO THINGS! I love the vampires in this game. I wish Aliens were more fleshed out, and I'm holding out hard for a good witch/fairy/werewolf supernatural to complete the set. The only thing I would want here is a couple of Vampire actions for toddlers and children (similar to TS3.)
@Anastaciasgem You are absolutely correct about the aspirations! It is wonderful to play more relaxed and not have to deal with sims losing their marbles if you don't complete an aspiration.
Sims 4 Blog
Don't feed trolls. Do feed cowplants.
I do feel a bit nostalgic for the sack babies and the dumpster-diving, but changing aspirations on the fly has become a major part of game play. If I've got a Sim with a parenting aspiration and the next step is to help a kid with homework, but the kid is still a toddler, I can switch to something else and keep gaining those aspiration points. (There's a really nice aspiration hack-cheat: give your Sims the wealth aspiration and use motherlode to start your Sim household with $300,000. The Sim you've selected will immediately achieve the wealth aspriation and gain enough points to get the 'seldom sleepy' reward. Select other Sims in the household and repeat. Gives everyone more time to do stuff instead of watching them sleep.)