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How would you change emotions in TS4?
playermarko456
Posts: 4,972 Member
As the discussion suggests, how would you change emotions/moodlet system in TS4?
Me personally, I would change the emotion/moodlet system in a way that the game prioritizes emotions from strongest to weakest. Here is a quick example: if a Sim experiences a death and gets the sad moodlet and then the Sims gets a feeling flirty moodlet, the game would prioritize the sad moodlet until it expires (flirty wouldn't override it) because sad is a stronger emotion that flirty; because that Sim is sad, they wouldn't want to engage in romantic interactions.
Me personally, I would change the emotion/moodlet system in a way that the game prioritizes emotions from strongest to weakest. Here is a quick example: if a Sim experiences a death and gets the sad moodlet and then the Sims gets a feeling flirty moodlet, the game would prioritize the sad moodlet until it expires (flirty wouldn't override it) because sad is a stronger emotion that flirty; because that Sim is sad, they wouldn't want to engage in romantic interactions.
Post edited by EA_Joz on
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It's hard to explain, but right now the only difference between different moodlet emotions is the weight (some add +1, +2, +3, etc. and if another emotion adds more weight, it overpowers the first). But, aside from the weight, your sims react to emotions the same way, no matter what. I can't think of any ways to fix that, though. Altering the weight and length of time of the moodlets could help. Or like, a sub-emotion underneath the main emotion.
roBurky's Meaningful Stories mod does an excellent job at reworking emotions by having one emotion boost another instead of overpowering it until time runs out, giving stronger or weaker variables at random, and more.
I can't remember if this was brought up on the forums or if I saw it on tumblr, but I think something like this could be cool. It might be a bit much, though.
Also, we need a Fear emotion.
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I'd also make some reaction or connection between sims with related traits. Good Sims get an uncomfortable moodlet when Evil Sims are around, but there are a lot of other combinations that could boost the rate Sims make friends or cause a hit to how much they like each other when they learn a trait.
Overall, I just want Sims with different traits to act and react differently, so there's more reason to choose different trait combinations, and so I can really like or dislike Sims based on something besides how punchable their face is or "kicked over my trashcan three times at a party."
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When my husband passed away I was sad. He had been sick for a long time so part of me was glad because he did not have to suffer anymore.
The day after he passed the kids and I watched some of his favorite movies. We laughed and cried together. We ate his favorite movie snacks/drinks. Emotions fluctuate. I learned that I can be sad and grieving and still laugh. This was 10 years ago. I have tears in laughter watching grandkids play that he never got to meet. Sadness can contain laughter. Laughter can hold sadness. No one holds one single emotion at a time for very long. In a single moment I can be sad, angry cry and laugh.
Emotions can not be prioritized. They just happen! It's all about how one reacts to the emotion felt. So if my Sims feel like dancing right after they witnessed a death I do not have a problem with it. I have been there!
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Very insightful. And when I think about it you are right. Even today I went from sad to depressed to irritated and tense then happy and laughing by the end of the night.
So although I do agree I think many just find it annoying in game lol
In the main, the problem seems to be that you: 1) don't see most of the moods most of the time 2) when you do, the priority is to get rid of them, often autonomously and even if not, they may simply be inconvenient, so you choose to try to get rid of them anyway 3) having most of them is not particularly interesting or varied in gameplay beyond some animation differences and hits or gains to success in some social interactions.
I think when people talk about the emotions system overwhelming traits, part of the problem is just that the emotions are hiding a somewhat shallow set of traits to begin with. So adding lots of emotion-related detail to traits would both expand their range of behavior and make it come through in the emotions.
^^ This exactly. Sims have always had a dynamic to the traits system except in this game. I like the traits being the main factor of how a sim would act.
I've rarely in my life ever felt flirty when I'm in mourning. No masking how I feel. Now, every person (and I would expect) every Sim reacts to mourning differently. Sometimes you may share a joke, or leave the gathering after the funeral to check out the brand new Mall that just opened. That's okay and quite normal.
As far as changing the emotion system, I would like to see their Traits in action. I was totally peeved that our Sims could have a favorite color in Sims3 and yet, they could walk into a room (their bedroom, for instance) artfully decked out with their favorite color and yet they don't change their mood in anyway. Let emotions be their emotions. Let them feel something. Anything. Please.
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I think the main problem with the emotion system and the resulting behaviour is that it's too simplistic, volatile and generic. Sims respond to life situations in a way that is often out of proportion with the event, like grief from a love one' death lasting only a few days, or grieving heavily for someone who is barely known. Memorable life events forgotten in a day, anger that lasts for hours despite all efforts to minimise it.
E.g. My current sim who is a good and compassionate sim should not be trolling on the forums for entertainment, as its completely out of character, but this doesn't stop the game from generating that random generic behaviour.
I would like emotions and the resulting behaviour to be more individualised by traits and be less volatile, but even that idea is inherently flawed as there are an insufficient number of character traits currently available to cover the whole spectrum of personalities and emotional types. E.g. No hardworking/workaholic trait, that could mitigate work stress. No faithful trait that would prevent random flirting. No brave trait to prevent storm based bad weather tension.
Regarding romance - sims will flirt with anyone in the right mood, regardless of any existing relationships and their partners are always angry and severely jealous to the point that it severely damages their relationship, but flirting isn't actually infidelity and not every one would react that way
It all feels too simplistic and it makes story telling more difficult, but then the game has a low rating, set for children, so I don't expect much improvement.
And, when you recover from, say, sadness, it doesn't just flicker on and off, even if you do experience a happy holiday. It does linger for a bit until it gets eventually fades away, which is what Meaningful Stories does pretty well.
There are still some improvements need to be made such as more emotional control depending on your Sim's traits. Like, my Sim is a bit of an idiot himself, and he should react differently to insults than, say, a more "normal" Sim if you get my drift? I'd like to see further steps taken to improve and complicate the emotion system to give the Sims more individuality.
I have a difficult time with Creative Sims because they can't seem to stay inspired for very long. Every time they paint an excellent painting or a masterpiece then they become confident for 4 to 8 hours. The same thing happens when they write an excellent book or cook an excellent meal. Sims with the Genius trait are just as bad. Paint an excellent mathematical diagram, win a chess game, or hack something successfully and they lose their focus and become confident for 4 to 6 hours.
And what does the Confident moodlet do? It triggers whims to be social like make a friend, meet someone new, or go somewhere to have a drink. It also triggers whims from the romance category like compliment or embrace someone. It seems to last much longer than any personality trait like focused, creative, or flirty. The one thing that seems to knock it out pretty fast is having them travel to have that drink they supposedly wanted, or pay a visit to their boyfriend or girlfriend because as soon as they arrive at their destination the whims reset and they want to do something else like play a video game or paint on an easel at the museum. On top of all of that, Sims with the Genius trait tend not to be that sociable so those whims to do something social are usually just a waste of time.