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Sims in Sims 4 don't feel unique. A Patch update to tweak existing Traits would help fix this
DeservedCriticism
Posts: 2,251 Member
Seriously, the traits we have are disappointing, but that doesn't mean they need to remain that way. They can still be salvaged, and I think it'd be an excellent project as one of those free content patches between new packs.
Compared to Sims 3, traits simply aren't as meaningful as they once were. Two great examples of this are Clumsy and Noncommital. In the case of Clumsy, a clumsy sim in Sims 3 had higher chances of breaking objects, starting fires and getting electrocuted. Clumsy sims were ones you needed to keep a close eye on and keep out of danger if you didn't want them to meet the Reaper 40 years too early. What happened to Clumsy in Sims 4....? To my understanding, it does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING beyond giving your sim a playful buff if they fall/fail while working out. I'm sorry, what am I even supposed to do with this? I mean from a gameplay perspective, I can't picture myself saying "oh I need a playful buff, let me go all the way to the gym and work out IN HOPES I get a short playful buff I can use." Of course not; if I want a playful buff I just tell jokes or watch the comedy channel. It even has potential to be annoying, cause if your sim is working out while Energized, then a playful buff could potentially get in the way and slow the rate you gain fitness skill. It's very, VERY meaningless, and compared to Sims 3's version, I don't understand why this change was made at all. The Sims 3 version would help a sim feel more unique.
And Noncommital? Well noncommital sims should, yknow, hate commitments. This trait was kinda neat in Sims 3 because these sims would roll wishes to do all kinds of stuff. They were typically the only Sims that would desire to quit their jobs just on a whim and without much reason (other sims might get that wish when demoted, commitment issues sims would get it if they came home in a bad mood), they'd often randomly desire to dabble in a new skill of some kind that had little to no relation to their other personality traits, and most importantly, it was difficult to hook up with them and if you were playing one yourself, they would NEVER get a wish to marry or have a spouse. Those wishes were completely filtered out of their wish pool. Sims 4?? They actually amped up how much noncommital sims hate steady jobs, and holy crap is it annoying. Like honestly, who thought this was a good idea...? I get they wanna stress that noncommital sims aren't good at sticking in one place, but constantly getting a tense debuff from having a job, irregardless of which job it is or how well it's going...? It's downright annoying. What's more, for some reason, they no longer care as much about long-term relationships. Just like everyone else, they get wishes to have a boyfriend or get married, even though later they're gonna turn around and complain that they're in a commited relationship via a tense debuff. Extra infuriating...? If you play this out and actually have them hook up and split up again, I find they often go right back to wishing they could hook up. NOTHING about the system seems to recognize a difference in their psyche beyond the tense debuff. It seems odd that they're incapable of recognizing they won't enjoy the relationship down the line, especially since Sims 3 sims did exactly that. While I'm on this subject, the same is the case for Hates Children. In Sims 3, a Dislikes Children sim wouldn't wish to try for baby. In Sims 4, they'll do it or even wish for it, only complaining after the fact.
The tense debuffs on noncommital are especially odd though, because early game, they're SUPER annoying. It just means your Sim is tense 24/7 if you choose to have a job...yknow, a basic cornerstone of life. Late game...? It stops mattering at all. You have access to better objects and interactions so that you can drown out the +1 Tense with multiple happy buffs, rendering the trait itself largely moot, since they function identically to other sims aside from the tense debuff.
That last point sadly sums up the majority of our traits: +1 buffs to specific moods really lose value as you gain access to more ways to influence moods, resulting in Sims all feeling the same since neither your Geek nor your Bro will act or behave differently from one another if they're both feeling Flirty. Why does my loner sim flirt exactly the same as my Romantic sim does? Why doesn't my Romantic sim get any bonuses...? As I said, by the time you have a nice house or access to better ways to influence your desired moods, they all end up feeling the same.
But this can be fixed!
Nowhere is it set in stone that because the traits were lackluster on launch day, the must remain that way forever and we can only hope for better traits in the future. Nah, we can still tweak them with future patches so that they're more meaningful and help peg the sims as individuals more.
How though? Here's a list of what I would suggest doing with each trait, and I'd love to hear if any other users have their own ideas on how to improve the traits. Note that with all of my suggestions, I am suggesting adding these new features on top of their existing features. I am NOT suggesting to get rid of their old features:
Emotional Traits - I've long wondered why on earth the Bodybuilder Aspiration and the Child's creativity aspiration have self-buffs that you can activate to give the desired mood. Why on earth was this given to aspirations rather than traits?! I would change this and universally apply self-activated emotion buffs corresponding with each mood, thus essentially allowing that Sim to activate a buff towards that specific emotion whenever they please. The random buffs would remain in place, but these sims would now have both the random one and a self-activated to help escalate how frequently they're found in their corresponding mood. A couple would also involve additional benefits. Here's what I'd do for each:
Athletic - Drinking an Energy Drink as a self-interaction would be moved from the Bodybuilder aspiration to this trait. Sims that are athletic would see their energy drain slower than other Sims, as well as see a boost to how quick they gain energized-based skills. Sore muscles and muscle cramps are far less common for these Sims, and they even lose carbs/build muscle faster during workouts
Cheerful - Cheerful Sims would gain the "What a Wonderful Day!" self-interaction for an on-demand happiness buff.
Creative - The Child's Creativity Aspiration's "Daydream" self-interaction would be moved to sims that have this trait. Sims that are Creative see a boost to how quickly they gain inspired-based skills, as well as a slight boost to the quality and price of all songs, books and paintings made
Genius - Geniuses would gain the "Contemplate Surroundings" self-interaction for an on-demand focused buff. Sims that are Geniuses see a boost to how quickly they learn focused-based skills....or all skills...? Geniuses also see a boost to the quality and payment rates of all Mathematical diagrams and Sci-fi books.
Gloomy - Gloomy Sims would gain the "Consider the Hollowness of Life" self-interaction for an on-demand sadness buff. Gloomy sims gain a boost to how much money they earn from writing poetry novels and tend to write higher-quality poetry novels, as well as produce higher quality Sad paintings that are worth more
Goofball - Goofball Sims would gain the "Make Fart Noises" self-interaction for an on-demand Playful buff. They likewise build comedy and mischief faster while also earning more for Playful novels and playful paintings, which they tend to make higher quality versions of
Hot-Headed - Hot-Headed Sims would gain the "Think about how stupid people are" self-interaction for an on-demand anger buff. They lose relationship faster from mean interactions, and they make higher quality Angry paintings while also earning more money for them
Romantic - Romantic Sims would gain the "Apply cologne/perfume" self-interaction for an on-demand romance buff. They build romantic relationship points faster from romantic interactions, are more successful when flirting, and they make higher quality Romance novels and paintings while also earning more money for them
Self-Assured - Self-Assured Sims would gain the "Eat Breath Mint" self-interaction for an on-demand confidence buff. They build relationships slightly faster, build the charisma skill faster, and produce higher quality motivational books and confidence paintings, which they earn more for
Hobby traits - A huge problem with these currently is that Art Lover, Music Lover and Bookworm all serve the exact same purpose, but Art Lover is the most efficient of the three. This needs to be remedied, and all the others could of course benefit from more detail as well.
Art Lover - These sims see a boost to the quality and value of paintings they produce, all moodlets gained from viewing paintings or artwork are twice as strong (+2 instead of +1), and they gain twice as much fun from viewing/admiring art
Bookworm - These sims see a boost to the quality and value of books they write, they read books twice as fast and gain twice as much fun from doing so, and reading certain books can inspire certain emotions from being read (Childish = Playful, Romance = Flirty, etc)
Foodie - These sims gain the cooking skill faster, tend to produce higher quality meals, and even gain fun while cooking and eating, hunger drains slightly faster
Geek - These sims gain the video gaming skill faster, gain twice as much fun from playing video games, have better chances of winning gaming tournaments and even gain more money from doing so. Relationships build faster with other geeks and the social need fills faster from talking to geeks
Music Lover - These sims see a boost to the quality and value of songs they produce, all moodlets gained from listening to music are twice as strong, and they gain twice as much fun from listening to music and playing instruments as other sims do
Perfectionist - Can be left as is
Lifestyle Traits:
Ambitious - Ambitious Sims naturally gain work performance faster than other sims and promotion requirements may be lower for them (aka a job normally demanding 8 charisma now demands 6)
Childish - These sims gain twice as much fun from playing with toys or doing kid activities (watching kids channels), and also build relationships with children faster than other sims
Clumsy - These sims are twice as likely to start fires, break objects, get electrocuted and experience other such misfortunes
Dance Machine - These Sims gain twice as much fun from dancing than normal sims, build the dancing skill faster, and can even be tipped while showing off dance moves on a dance mat
Glutton - Sims with this trait have their hunger bar drain faster, experience hunger debuffs quicker (if it normally happens when the meter is 20% full, Gluttons feel it at 40%), the debuff is stronger, and they gain fun from eating
Insane - Good as-is
Klepto - Good as-is
Lazy - A lazy sim's energy meter depletes faster, and they experience exhaustion sooner (if Sims normally become exhausted at 15% energy, these sims become tired at 25%)
Loves Outdoors - These sims are more likely to find rare collectibles than other sims
Materialistic - These sims gain stronger buffs for "beautiful surroundings" and cease to receive the "stale surroundings" debuff if the lot value exceeds 200k
Neat - These sims clean objects twice as fast as other sims and receive stronger debuffs from bad surroundings. Fun gained from cleaning should receive a boost
Slob - Good as-is. If anything, give them a "dumpster dive" interaction that allows them to potentially find all sorts of stuff in neighbor's garbage cans
Snob - Relationships fill faster with other snobs and the social need builds faster from talking to other Snobs
Squeamish - Good as-is
Social Traits:
Bro - These Sims build relationship faster with other Bros and the social need builds faster from talking to Bros. The intended energized buff from watching Sports should be implemented in place of the current confidence buff. Energized buff gained when in the presence of at least two other Bros
Evil - These Sims build negative relationships faster, do NOT suffer negative debuffs from other Sims dying, and they build relationships with good Sims at half the normal speed. As an easter egg, perhaps these sims build relationship with the Grim Reaper twice as fast.
Family-Orientated - Drastically reduce the frequency with which these Sims wish to buy toys. These Sims are more likely to conceive twins or triplets when having a child and build relationships faster with family members while also satisfying their social meter faster
Good - These sims build relationships with evil sims at half the normal speed
Hates Children - These Sims will never get a wish to try for baby, nor will they agree to try for baby unless they have a perfect relationship with their spouse (MAXED friendship and romance bars)
Jealous - These Sims gain twice as much social need from talking to their spouse, take a massive hit to their relationship if they catch their spouse cheating (twice as strong as normal sims), and if on a lot with their spouse and multiple other sims, will tend to demand the attention of their spouse (their AI directs them to remain close to and interact with their spouse more frequently than usual)
Loner - These Sims lose the social need slower than other sims
Mean - These sims build negative relationship faster than other sims
Noncommital - These Sims will NEVER wish to be in a relationship and will only accept proposals if in soulmate status or higher (80% of both the friendship and romance bars filled, I think...?). The "Need a vacation" tense debuffs are twice as powerful on these sims, and coming home in a bad mood or from a workday where work performance was lost will cause these Sims to get a tense debuff about wanting to quit their job. Due to decreased frequency compared to before, this tense debuff now lasts longer when it does trigger. The tense debuff regarding relationships would continue to occur periodically as it does now, but can also be triggered by bad interactions with their spouse, or reduced (ala taking a cold shower to reduce flirtiness) by socializing well with your spouse for a bit
Outgoing - These sims gain relationships faster than normal sims
Thoughts? Suggestions? Criticisms?
I didn't bother giving exact amounts for some of these benefits because, well, I'm not a developer. I don't have the knowledge and foresight to determine what amounts would be too strong and too insignificant. If these suggestions were implemented, then you could - for example - make a Creative Art Lover that's also Gloomy, and that would be three seperate traits all boosting the value and the quality of your Sad paintings. Three seperate amplifiers has potential to quickly become too strong (example, maybe a normal sim makes a sad painting for 900, but this sim sells one for 3000) or too weak (if all those buffs only increased the value from 900 to 1000), thus it's something the developers would have to tweak and play with the amounts and figure out what's the most reasonable. I only listed that certain hobby traits would double the fun gained from doing that hobby because I believe such a sizeable and a significant boost is good since it would encourage you to make your Bookworm Sim read books as the preferred method to fill the fun meter, for example.
Overall, I feel these tweaks would help make Sims feel more unique. As things stand now, if you have three Sims that all have +4 Inspiration from cooking a meal or mixing a drink, it legitimately doesn't matter if one of those Sims is a Creative Bookworm. Despite having more traits that encourage that he be inspired, he is functionally identical to all other inspired Sims once in that mood. This is bad. The tweaks I've suggested mostly seek to remedy this by giving such sims something irreplaceable and significant that occurs regardless of mood. Even if two Sims are both feeling flirty, the romantic one will build romance relationships significantly faster than the one that isn't romantic. Even if two Sims feel sad, only the Gloomy Sim will see a boost towards his sad paintings and sad books he writes. And even if two Sims both have maxed video games skill, the one with the Geek trait still has better odds of winning gaming tournaments. To me, that feels better and is a nice extra step towards helping Sims feel unique and put some value into the traits you select.
As I said, if anyone has suggestions and tweaks of their own they'd like to recommend, feel free to do so in the comments.
Compared to Sims 3, traits simply aren't as meaningful as they once were. Two great examples of this are Clumsy and Noncommital. In the case of Clumsy, a clumsy sim in Sims 3 had higher chances of breaking objects, starting fires and getting electrocuted. Clumsy sims were ones you needed to keep a close eye on and keep out of danger if you didn't want them to meet the Reaper 40 years too early. What happened to Clumsy in Sims 4....? To my understanding, it does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING beyond giving your sim a playful buff if they fall/fail while working out. I'm sorry, what am I even supposed to do with this? I mean from a gameplay perspective, I can't picture myself saying "oh I need a playful buff, let me go all the way to the gym and work out IN HOPES I get a short playful buff I can use." Of course not; if I want a playful buff I just tell jokes or watch the comedy channel. It even has potential to be annoying, cause if your sim is working out while Energized, then a playful buff could potentially get in the way and slow the rate you gain fitness skill. It's very, VERY meaningless, and compared to Sims 3's version, I don't understand why this change was made at all. The Sims 3 version would help a sim feel more unique.
And Noncommital? Well noncommital sims should, yknow, hate commitments. This trait was kinda neat in Sims 3 because these sims would roll wishes to do all kinds of stuff. They were typically the only Sims that would desire to quit their jobs just on a whim and without much reason (other sims might get that wish when demoted, commitment issues sims would get it if they came home in a bad mood), they'd often randomly desire to dabble in a new skill of some kind that had little to no relation to their other personality traits, and most importantly, it was difficult to hook up with them and if you were playing one yourself, they would NEVER get a wish to marry or have a spouse. Those wishes were completely filtered out of their wish pool. Sims 4?? They actually amped up how much noncommital sims hate steady jobs, and holy crap is it annoying. Like honestly, who thought this was a good idea...? I get they wanna stress that noncommital sims aren't good at sticking in one place, but constantly getting a tense debuff from having a job, irregardless of which job it is or how well it's going...? It's downright annoying. What's more, for some reason, they no longer care as much about long-term relationships. Just like everyone else, they get wishes to have a boyfriend or get married, even though later they're gonna turn around and complain that they're in a commited relationship via a tense debuff. Extra infuriating...? If you play this out and actually have them hook up and split up again, I find they often go right back to wishing they could hook up. NOTHING about the system seems to recognize a difference in their psyche beyond the tense debuff. It seems odd that they're incapable of recognizing they won't enjoy the relationship down the line, especially since Sims 3 sims did exactly that. While I'm on this subject, the same is the case for Hates Children. In Sims 3, a Dislikes Children sim wouldn't wish to try for baby. In Sims 4, they'll do it or even wish for it, only complaining after the fact.
The tense debuffs on noncommital are especially odd though, because early game, they're SUPER annoying. It just means your Sim is tense 24/7 if you choose to have a job...yknow, a basic cornerstone of life. Late game...? It stops mattering at all. You have access to better objects and interactions so that you can drown out the +1 Tense with multiple happy buffs, rendering the trait itself largely moot, since they function identically to other sims aside from the tense debuff.
That last point sadly sums up the majority of our traits: +1 buffs to specific moods really lose value as you gain access to more ways to influence moods, resulting in Sims all feeling the same since neither your Geek nor your Bro will act or behave differently from one another if they're both feeling Flirty. Why does my loner sim flirt exactly the same as my Romantic sim does? Why doesn't my Romantic sim get any bonuses...? As I said, by the time you have a nice house or access to better ways to influence your desired moods, they all end up feeling the same.
But this can be fixed!
Nowhere is it set in stone that because the traits were lackluster on launch day, the must remain that way forever and we can only hope for better traits in the future. Nah, we can still tweak them with future patches so that they're more meaningful and help peg the sims as individuals more.
How though? Here's a list of what I would suggest doing with each trait, and I'd love to hear if any other users have their own ideas on how to improve the traits. Note that with all of my suggestions, I am suggesting adding these new features on top of their existing features. I am NOT suggesting to get rid of their old features:
Emotional Traits - I've long wondered why on earth the Bodybuilder Aspiration and the Child's creativity aspiration have self-buffs that you can activate to give the desired mood. Why on earth was this given to aspirations rather than traits?! I would change this and universally apply self-activated emotion buffs corresponding with each mood, thus essentially allowing that Sim to activate a buff towards that specific emotion whenever they please. The random buffs would remain in place, but these sims would now have both the random one and a self-activated to help escalate how frequently they're found in their corresponding mood. A couple would also involve additional benefits. Here's what I'd do for each:
Athletic - Drinking an Energy Drink as a self-interaction would be moved from the Bodybuilder aspiration to this trait. Sims that are athletic would see their energy drain slower than other Sims, as well as see a boost to how quick they gain energized-based skills. Sore muscles and muscle cramps are far less common for these Sims, and they even lose carbs/build muscle faster during workouts
Cheerful - Cheerful Sims would gain the "What a Wonderful Day!" self-interaction for an on-demand happiness buff.
Creative - The Child's Creativity Aspiration's "Daydream" self-interaction would be moved to sims that have this trait. Sims that are Creative see a boost to how quickly they gain inspired-based skills, as well as a slight boost to the quality and price of all songs, books and paintings made
Genius - Geniuses would gain the "Contemplate Surroundings" self-interaction for an on-demand focused buff. Sims that are Geniuses see a boost to how quickly they learn focused-based skills....or all skills...? Geniuses also see a boost to the quality and payment rates of all Mathematical diagrams and Sci-fi books.
Gloomy - Gloomy Sims would gain the "Consider the Hollowness of Life" self-interaction for an on-demand sadness buff. Gloomy sims gain a boost to how much money they earn from writing poetry novels and tend to write higher-quality poetry novels, as well as produce higher quality Sad paintings that are worth more
Goofball - Goofball Sims would gain the "Make Fart Noises" self-interaction for an on-demand Playful buff. They likewise build comedy and mischief faster while also earning more for Playful novels and playful paintings, which they tend to make higher quality versions of
Hot-Headed - Hot-Headed Sims would gain the "Think about how stupid people are" self-interaction for an on-demand anger buff. They lose relationship faster from mean interactions, and they make higher quality Angry paintings while also earning more money for them
Romantic - Romantic Sims would gain the "Apply cologne/perfume" self-interaction for an on-demand romance buff. They build romantic relationship points faster from romantic interactions, are more successful when flirting, and they make higher quality Romance novels and paintings while also earning more money for them
Self-Assured - Self-Assured Sims would gain the "Eat Breath Mint" self-interaction for an on-demand confidence buff. They build relationships slightly faster, build the charisma skill faster, and produce higher quality motivational books and confidence paintings, which they earn more for
Hobby traits - A huge problem with these currently is that Art Lover, Music Lover and Bookworm all serve the exact same purpose, but Art Lover is the most efficient of the three. This needs to be remedied, and all the others could of course benefit from more detail as well.
Art Lover - These sims see a boost to the quality and value of paintings they produce, all moodlets gained from viewing paintings or artwork are twice as strong (+2 instead of +1), and they gain twice as much fun from viewing/admiring art
Bookworm - These sims see a boost to the quality and value of books they write, they read books twice as fast and gain twice as much fun from doing so, and reading certain books can inspire certain emotions from being read (Childish = Playful, Romance = Flirty, etc)
Foodie - These sims gain the cooking skill faster, tend to produce higher quality meals, and even gain fun while cooking and eating, hunger drains slightly faster
Geek - These sims gain the video gaming skill faster, gain twice as much fun from playing video games, have better chances of winning gaming tournaments and even gain more money from doing so. Relationships build faster with other geeks and the social need fills faster from talking to geeks
Music Lover - These sims see a boost to the quality and value of songs they produce, all moodlets gained from listening to music are twice as strong, and they gain twice as much fun from listening to music and playing instruments as other sims do
Perfectionist - Can be left as is
Lifestyle Traits:
Ambitious - Ambitious Sims naturally gain work performance faster than other sims and promotion requirements may be lower for them (aka a job normally demanding 8 charisma now demands 6)
Childish - These sims gain twice as much fun from playing with toys or doing kid activities (watching kids channels), and also build relationships with children faster than other sims
Clumsy - These sims are twice as likely to start fires, break objects, get electrocuted and experience other such misfortunes
Dance Machine - These Sims gain twice as much fun from dancing than normal sims, build the dancing skill faster, and can even be tipped while showing off dance moves on a dance mat
Glutton - Sims with this trait have their hunger bar drain faster, experience hunger debuffs quicker (if it normally happens when the meter is 20% full, Gluttons feel it at 40%), the debuff is stronger, and they gain fun from eating
Insane - Good as-is
Klepto - Good as-is
Lazy - A lazy sim's energy meter depletes faster, and they experience exhaustion sooner (if Sims normally become exhausted at 15% energy, these sims become tired at 25%)
Loves Outdoors - These sims are more likely to find rare collectibles than other sims
Materialistic - These sims gain stronger buffs for "beautiful surroundings" and cease to receive the "stale surroundings" debuff if the lot value exceeds 200k
Neat - These sims clean objects twice as fast as other sims and receive stronger debuffs from bad surroundings. Fun gained from cleaning should receive a boost
Slob - Good as-is. If anything, give them a "dumpster dive" interaction that allows them to potentially find all sorts of stuff in neighbor's garbage cans
Snob - Relationships fill faster with other snobs and the social need builds faster from talking to other Snobs
Squeamish - Good as-is
Social Traits:
Bro - These Sims build relationship faster with other Bros and the social need builds faster from talking to Bros. The intended energized buff from watching Sports should be implemented in place of the current confidence buff. Energized buff gained when in the presence of at least two other Bros
Evil - These Sims build negative relationships faster, do NOT suffer negative debuffs from other Sims dying, and they build relationships with good Sims at half the normal speed. As an easter egg, perhaps these sims build relationship with the Grim Reaper twice as fast.
Family-Orientated - Drastically reduce the frequency with which these Sims wish to buy toys. These Sims are more likely to conceive twins or triplets when having a child and build relationships faster with family members while also satisfying their social meter faster
Good - These sims build relationships with evil sims at half the normal speed
Hates Children - These Sims will never get a wish to try for baby, nor will they agree to try for baby unless they have a perfect relationship with their spouse (MAXED friendship and romance bars)
Jealous - These Sims gain twice as much social need from talking to their spouse, take a massive hit to their relationship if they catch their spouse cheating (twice as strong as normal sims), and if on a lot with their spouse and multiple other sims, will tend to demand the attention of their spouse (their AI directs them to remain close to and interact with their spouse more frequently than usual)
Loner - These Sims lose the social need slower than other sims
Mean - These sims build negative relationship faster than other sims
Noncommital - These Sims will NEVER wish to be in a relationship and will only accept proposals if in soulmate status or higher (80% of both the friendship and romance bars filled, I think...?). The "Need a vacation" tense debuffs are twice as powerful on these sims, and coming home in a bad mood or from a workday where work performance was lost will cause these Sims to get a tense debuff about wanting to quit their job. Due to decreased frequency compared to before, this tense debuff now lasts longer when it does trigger. The tense debuff regarding relationships would continue to occur periodically as it does now, but can also be triggered by bad interactions with their spouse, or reduced (ala taking a cold shower to reduce flirtiness) by socializing well with your spouse for a bit
Outgoing - These sims gain relationships faster than normal sims
Thoughts? Suggestions? Criticisms?
I didn't bother giving exact amounts for some of these benefits because, well, I'm not a developer. I don't have the knowledge and foresight to determine what amounts would be too strong and too insignificant. If these suggestions were implemented, then you could - for example - make a Creative Art Lover that's also Gloomy, and that would be three seperate traits all boosting the value and the quality of your Sad paintings. Three seperate amplifiers has potential to quickly become too strong (example, maybe a normal sim makes a sad painting for 900, but this sim sells one for 3000) or too weak (if all those buffs only increased the value from 900 to 1000), thus it's something the developers would have to tweak and play with the amounts and figure out what's the most reasonable. I only listed that certain hobby traits would double the fun gained from doing that hobby because I believe such a sizeable and a significant boost is good since it would encourage you to make your Bookworm Sim read books as the preferred method to fill the fun meter, for example.
Overall, I feel these tweaks would help make Sims feel more unique. As things stand now, if you have three Sims that all have +4 Inspiration from cooking a meal or mixing a drink, it legitimately doesn't matter if one of those Sims is a Creative Bookworm. Despite having more traits that encourage that he be inspired, he is functionally identical to all other inspired Sims once in that mood. This is bad. The tweaks I've suggested mostly seek to remedy this by giving such sims something irreplaceable and significant that occurs regardless of mood. Even if two Sims are both feeling flirty, the romantic one will build romance relationships significantly faster than the one that isn't romantic. Even if two Sims feel sad, only the Gloomy Sim will see a boost towards his sad paintings and sad books he writes. And even if two Sims both have maxed video games skill, the one with the Geek trait still has better odds of winning gaming tournaments. To me, that feels better and is a nice extra step towards helping Sims feel unique and put some value into the traits you select.
As I said, if anyone has suggestions and tweaks of their own they'd like to recommend, feel free to do so in the comments.
"Who are you, that do not know your history?"
18
Comments
Some traits should be tied to increasing skill gain and they should have their own unique interactions. As of right now my sims feel more defined by whatever emotion they're in than their actual traits. I guess my main gripe with the emotion system is that the emotions completely overpower the traits to the point that I forget what my sim's traits even are. Even if they add a bunch of new traits if they're as a shallow as the base game I don't see myself bothering to use them. I love a lot of your suggestions btw for the traits.
One of the first things I did after installing TS4 was to set up the asylum challenge. It was an absolute fail. My house of 8 insane Sims acted more like an episode of Friends sitting around Central Perk.
I would rather see actual actions instead of buffs, moodlets or filling and depleting of a needs or relationship bar.
Just as an FYI, it seems like somebody on the Sims team made the (bad) decision to really try and stress the moods system for Sims 4. The result? Geniuses no longer gain an inherit bonus towards learning certain skills faster like in Sims 3, but instead, the Focused mood provides a boost to how quickly you learn certain skills.
As I said in my post though, the problem arises when I have both a Genius and a Slob play Chess against one another, BOTH of them gain a Focused buff just from playing, and then BOTH of them are gaining logic at the exact same rate. As far as I'm concerned, the focused buffs can stay, but I think Genius also deserves a natural, inherit bonus to how quickly it learns focused-based skills regardless of what condition or mood the genius is in. If tweaked correctly, it should be easy enough to allow for both without the skill gain rate becoming ridiculous.
What would you suggest for the Insane trait then? In the past, it's main attraction was that they could talk to themselves for social and their wishes and wardrobe could be rather random. Now? They can still talk to themselves for social, and I suppose they COULD at least make their wardrobe choice randomized, but the wishes system is...well, it's friggin' awful, so I can't imagine we'd even notice how crazy some of their wishes are since our sims already seem crazy with their random wishes.
And to this part:
Is that in response to all of my changes? If so, what would you change instead? The changes I suggested can be subtle-yet-noticeable and affect Sims in day-to-day ways. Glutton for example as I suggested it would be a completely negative trait with limited redeeming qualities, and you would find it difficult to play one, which is the intention. Additional actions would be nice too, but that's easier said than done for certain traits. Take Romantic, for example. What special action would you give to romantic that doesn't involve buffs, moodlets or filling/depleting a relationship bar faster? The ONLY thing I can think of off the top of my head that doesn't involve those is that Sims are significantly more reluctant to flirt if they're married; perhaps this downside should be negated entirely if your sim is romantic? Even so, the end result is the same: they have an easier time building up a romantic relationship.
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The Sims 4 General DiscussionYou know I haven't put a lot of thought into what I would want other than in general I'd rather see things happening instead of moodlets. In TS2 Sims got sick and if not cared for they could die. In TS3 Sims got a "germy" moodlet...that's it. Nothing happened and if you weren't watching closely you didn't even know they were "sick". In TS4 you do get a bit of animation and sometimes marks on their body but other than that there hasn't been a lot of change since TS3.
As far as insane....my TS3 Sims would talk to themselves, effect hilarious outfits like a cocktail dress with swim fins and have actual freak outs while walking down the street. Ghosts didn't bother them (but then in this version ghosts don't bother any Sim). They would do autonomous actions like fishing in the swimming pool, rummage through the neighbors trash and depending on what EPs you have installed your Sim could act like an animal (Pets) or be even a little crazier in the full moon(Supernatural). You could combine traits like insane, unstable, inappropriate and paranoid to get some pretty funny Sims.
Unlucky and Clumsy both negatively affected death odds, but Unlucky was immune to early deaths.
Generally in life we lead with our emotions our traits simply define our interests and color our reactions to everyday situations.
The degree in which a trait will take the lead varies from person to person and (obviously) depends on how well defined a trait is.
However speaking in general terms, emotions are first in the hierarchy becuase we experience them from moment to moment, our traits just color our reponse to stimilus in most cases.
I have a hunch this is the reason they decided to filter the traits through the emotions, but you're right it should be the other way around in most cases when we're trying to create charicatures. We want the traits to take the lead for the most part, and the emotions to be the buff/debuff reward/penalty.
I have a suggestion or two, myself:
- Bro sims only really have anything to do related to their trait with another bro. I think some more interactions should be added for bros with normal sims, like enthusing about sport, proclaim as brother/sister from another mother, horse around etc.
- Loner sims should be more awkward in love and have chances of slip-ups when romancing. Not sims rejecting them more easily, but awkward fails like slobbering when kissing (uncomfortable and embarassed buffs for both), bumping foreheads when embracing/having first kiss etc. This could also apply to clumsy sims. Loner sims should also be wayyy less dependant on social interaction. In fact, they should barely have to socialize at all, because their trait basically means hermit. When pets arrive, they should also get the same amount of social need from interacting with a pet as they would from socializing with a sim.
- Ambitious sims could get promoted more easily, but I think making requirements like skills lower, kind of beats the point and makes them work less, while they should want to work more. It would be cool if ambitious sims can "work overtime" as an option in the work panel, which makes them gain more work experience and some overtime pay. They should also not get tense from "working hard" at work, since that's what they want to do. They could also maybe get an interaction on their phone and computer "chat with coworkers about work" and "do extra work."
Pirates!! http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/906481/pirate-gp-smuggling-dueling-live-on-ship-or-build-own-and-more#latest
Honestly, I'd rather have a sim have less traits that are super-detailed than more traits that are flat. I'd rather have the devs focus on improving traits than adding more slots. Anyway, TS3 had way more traits than TS4, so it made sense to have many slots, while TS4 have way less but more broad traits that combine a lot of TS3 traits, which were very specific.
Pirates!! http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/906481/pirate-gp-smuggling-dueling-live-on-ship-or-build-own-and-more#latest
I would actually recommend that instead of hitting loner with this, they implement a new personality trait called "Awkward." Awkward would be an emotional personality trait that has a chance to induce an Embarassed moodlet periodically. It could likewise get a self-buff called "Psyche self out" that would allow the player to automatically give the sim a 4 hour embarassed moodlet.
Then take your idea of romantic screw-ups and apply it to Awkward and Unflirty instead. There's plenty of loners out there that aren't socially inept, but Awkward would be...well, self-explanatory.
At the same time, though, our traits determine our emotions and how we experience and handle them. Traits should determine how strong our sims' emotions are. Cheerful sims should, as an example, get stronger happy buffs and be more difficult to get sad buffs. A gloomy sim doesn't get happy buffs from things that other sims do (maybe they could still get the buffs, but as "fine" instead of happy, like getting a "Nicely Decorated. Mm." fine buff), but get much stronger sad buffs. This systen doesn't have to be complicated at all - it's simply a mechanic of +2 instead of +1 and certain buffs not applying to certain traits.
Pirates!! http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/906481/pirate-gp-smuggling-dueling-live-on-ship-or-build-own-and-more#latest
Sorry, for bringing/reviving this up, but only Unlucky and Loser can affect the odds of dying.
I could've typed it better; Clumsy increased death odds for certain deaths, such as electrocution. I think they may have started fires more frequently too. No affect on some other deaths, though, such as Mummy's Curse (chance of getting it or losing the fight) or Time Paradox.