Should the devs change how incoming calls work?

nastyjman · December 2021

With the addition of Neighborhood Stories, these calls are getting more frequent. There had been a suggestion that a Voicemail system should be implemented. With a voicemail system, you don't have to pick up a call or miss them while in the middle of micromanagement. How the Voicemail system works is either show up as a Notification at the top-right, or as a panel in the cellphone. In the voicemail, you get to answer at your own leisure. Or ignore them, which would then expire at a certain time.

Anyone thinking the same?

lexibee · December 2021

I definitely think it would be interesting to have voicemails. I'd like to see house phones make a comeback and I feel like it could work well with that instead of having to add more buttons to the already exhaustive amount of options on the cell phone.

I'd also like the ability to not receive calls at all. Muting the phone just means it won't alarm when getting a call/text. But sometimes I don't want a sim to get calls at All. Especially since I keep mostly getting calls to go out with sims my sim doesn't know, or getting calls about "Wow you're friends with [insert sims name]? They're so cool!" and stuff like that.

I'd like the phone calls more if they were actually substantial and came from sims my sim actually knows more often. Having a good reputation or knowing more than 5 sims just means I'm always getting calls about making new friends or getting requests from random townies to join a new career or something.

So yeah. Voicemail would be cool but Only if it's mainly substantial calls and not just a bunch of spam.

babajayne · December 2021

I love the voicemail idea. It would be great to use it to stall the “do you want to hang out tonight?” messages. I often get these long before nighttime and I don’t want to get dragged out midday. I understand if the special event ones are more urgent, but that party going down at the Chalet is going to last a few hours, let me take a shower first!

luthienrising · December 2021

That's a pretty cool idea! I like it.

Thrior · December 2021

I think this could be cool, to be able to check out the messages at your own leisure instead of missing them or being constantly interrupted by them. There's been several times when the current system has basically forced me to miss a call because I had some other popup coming at the same time and it then acted as if time passed for that call (even though rest of the game was frozen) and, whoops, lost your chance to answer.
Also, I hate how someone calls at 10am and asks: "Do you wanna hang out tonight?" which translates to: "Let's go out RIGHT FREAKING NOW!!!" There's been many times when I'd have liked to say yes but I didn't want to interrupt some other action I was just doing. (Also, my day phobia vampire would like an option to tell them to go soak their heads and call again at night.)

logion · December 2021

That sounds like a good idea.

I also think it should work as it works in MC Command Center. You can enable a setting in that mod (Silence_Phone_Texts) so that when your phone is muted that means no messages, no invites and no calls showing up on your screen.

amjoie · December 2021

Anything to keep the phone spam manageable is good with me.

Babykittyjade · December 2021

Love this idea!!
Also agree about the spam calls. Because I actually love receiving invites or interesting calls but I swear they are all spam and career questions. I don't even play careers so that's pretty blah.
Now if we got some really weird and creepy scam/spam calls I'd be into that 😎 but these are just boringly uninteresting. Or either my cat Congratulating me on being friends with my daughter 👁👄👁

SimsJedi · December 2021

A voice mail system would be so useful! I haven't found the calls too annoying (yet), but it would be nice to ignore calls to focus on whatever your Sim is doing that moment. Personally I always wanted to be able to read through my Sim's text history, too. Maybe if they implement a system for voice mail, they could also do one for texting.

A phone on/off toggle in general would also be wonderful. It wouldn't just be convenient for people who don't want constant phone spam, but for historical games, it can be a real annoyance to see your Sims autonomously playing with their phones.

LiELF · December 2021

I agree wholeheartedly with the consensus here that voice mail and the ability to turn the phone off completely would be extremely useful. I've been wanting a way to turn off the phone for 7 years.

Please devs, make this happen.

keekee53 · December 2021

Between the telemarketing scams(yes in sims), school popups, neighborhood stories, regular I want to chat, marriage conditional calls, the donate to charity calls, I would like an off button. Not a turn off the phone but to make all these optional in game.

Edit: I forgot the do you want to go with me somewhere calls(spice fest, romance fest, geek, bluffs, date, hang out, etc)

Kathykins · December 2021

keekee53 wrote: »

Between the telemarketing scams(yes in sims), school popups, neighborhood stories, regular I want to chat, marriage conditional calls, the donate to charity calls, I would like an off button. Not a turn off the phone but to make all these optional in game.

Edit: I forgot the do you want to go with me somewhere calls(spice fest, romance fest, geek, bluffs, date, hang out, etc)

Not to mention the ever annoying "I heard you became friends with so-and-so blah blah blah". I can't tell you how utterly tired I am of that call. I mean, how do they even KNOW? I can check the callers relationships, and they don't even KNOW the sim they are calling about?!

Sharonia · December 2021

Anything that makes the phone bearable would be nice. The job offers are so annoying.

DominicLaurence · December 2021

Be able to set when we want to respond or accept an invitation is a dream of mine.

ACruelButLovingGod · December 2021

My hat's off to the devs. My sims now ignore 99 percent of incoming calls, assuming they're spam/scam, the same way I do IRL!

invisiblgirl · December 2021

I like this - my Sims don't stand around waiting for the phone to ring. They're always busy improving themselves or cleaning up their messes. I don't want to stop in the middle of a yoga session to take a call, but I might actually answer the phone if I could do it after they finish the yoga or cooking or whatever.

ModerateOsprey · December 2021

I'd be down with this if the calls/messages were sensible and had some context. I suspect the reality of it would be more akin to the funless task of clearing out spam from my email, IRL.

Ersa_Middleton · December 2021

New born babies shouldn't be calling parents about joining groups.

CK213 · December 2021

That would be awesome.
I don't really care about being bothered with calls, It's just annoying when you get a call from someone who want's to go out right now.
I usually refuse because I am doing something more important. If I had voice mail I can take on these social engagements at a better time.

FiendishlyDelighted · December 2021

I think to get calls from a Sim, you should have to be more than acquaintances. This would entirely resolve the whole, "they were at the bar the same night I was on a date and chatted near me and got auto-added to my chat and now act like they know me" issue. No one gives their phone number to random people who forcefully interjected into their private conversation at a bar. Also, an option to respond to conversations with an option like 'who are you?' as an indicator to remove from Sims call list would be nice.

EmmaVane · December 2021

I'd also like a call/text/voicemail filtering system (allow/block by type) and the ability to block specific sims from callng too.

Maybe make the "Exchange numbers" interaction Friendly and the only way of gaining access to your sim via phone (apart from things like school/work calls where having your number makes sense).

83bienchen · December 2021

Very nice idea.

GalacticGal · December 2021

I have only had one such phone call so far. Turned out to be the boyfriend of one of my Sims calling to ask if he should say yes to what he believed she was going to ask him, having found a ring in her purse. Since it was my Sim's boyfriend, she told him to say yes. Presto, that fast they were engaged. Then I got a tad worried. So, the next time I played I made certain she was the Brianna he mentioned and not one of her brother's Paparazzi! Phew! She's the one. LOL I am not bothered by it. We get those pop-downs a lot. I just pause my game read it and decide what to do about it. What's troublesome is when my Teen celebrity is trying to 'bank' his earnings, which he does over the phone and it turns out one of his siblings is seeking advice from a parent at the same time. The advice panel supersedes the banking interaction.

The Sims Forums

Should the devs change how incoming calls work?

Comments