Home› Discussion› The Sims 4 Packs Discussion
  • Categories
  • Discussions
  • Activity
  • Best Of...
    • Forum Announcement, Click Here to Read More From EA_Cade.

    Family dynamics - how do they work in practice?

    cutecabaretcutecabaret Posts: 56 Member
    in The Sims 4 Packs Discussion
    After fiddling with and testing growing together for a few days, the one thing I am still confused about is the Family Dynamics feature. What is this supposed to actually do? Does it only affect autonomy? Or does it also control relationship loss/gain? I tried looking in the code but couldn't find much.

    Comments

    • Options
      rudolpharudolpha Posts: 998 Member
      edited March 2023
      Not sure about dynamics because there don't seem to be guidelines. One family where the daughter hugged her mom ended up with a supportive dynamic. I'm also into compatibilities. I read that it has a lot to do with preferences, and especially the two new ones, but there are other factors I think such as lifestyle and traits. My latest family in rotation is a doozy. They are two mer couples with bad compatibility and one of them has bad compatibility with everyone. So I've been trying to see why. They seem to get along despite this and between them have three toddlers, all with some bad quirks. With the new age lengths and I play on long, this won't change soon. So will see how this develops. Preferences can be changed but for dynamics they evolve with play for me so far. My mer family adults are strict with their kids and I can't really tell how that happened. Is it because they had so many bad quirks? I play a lot of families and this is number 12 since the ep. Won't get back to it soon. By comparison my Feng family couple have great compatibility. No one else does but at least they are neutral.
    • Options
      cutecabaretcutecabaret Posts: 56 Member
      My biggest concern is that in order to get the full benefit of this feature, I will need to have autonomy always on full for everybody which is not how I like to play because sims autonomy is very annoying sometimes.
    • Options
      rudolpharudolpha Posts: 998 Member
      I play with autonomy on all the time but I don't see how this being off will prevent you from trying out different scenarios to elicit the dynamic you want, in fact it might be easier if you choose the interactions you want.
    • Options
      cutecabaretcutecabaret Posts: 56 Member
      Well I'm trying to figure out what interactions lead to which gameplay pop up, haha. The code does not explain it.
    • Options
      rudolpharudolpha Posts: 998 Member
      Right. Seems to be trial and error, maybe a bit of intuition. I found disciplining my water-loving toddler when he splashed in the toilet brought on a Strict dynamic, so from now on, since I don't want that any more, kids can splash away all they want.
    • Options
      cutecabaretcutecabaret Posts: 56 Member
      So I am looking at the tuning more and it seems a lot of the toddler care interactions are linked to the strict dynamic which is interesting. Gonna have to try playing the game more to see it in practice.
    • Options
      JustinB113JustinB113 Posts: 1,050 Member
      I don’t think it controls relationship loss/gain but I read it gives new dialogue options/commands between the sims? And like you say autonomous behaviour.
    • Options
      Paigeisin5Paigeisin5 Posts: 2,139 Member
      There are a lot of interactions and surprises that happen with autonomy turned off. And that is the way I have always played my game. But I am seeing many interactions going on when I am involved with another Sim in the household, and the other Sim is just doing whatever they want. The big difference is these autonomous actions aren't annoying. It isn't like they're grabbing their fifteenth glass of water in an hour then leaving empty or half full glasses everywhere. These interactions are mostly socials and actually have meaning. Sometimes I have to pause the game and read the notifications to find out happened. Parents give their kids a 'family kiss' or praise them for doing well in school all on their own without any direction from me. I have yet to see an annoying autonomous interaction or new quirk pop up. I'm holding my breath because I use about 73 tuning mods that nuke a lot of those annoying quirks/bugs, and I'd rather not add more to the ones I am using. I've put close to fifty hours into playing GT, and this EP plays like a dream when compared to ones like EL and IL. The family dynamic, at least in my game, does affect how well family members get along. It also keeps the family members' relationships from decaying even if two members of the family argue. I currently have a young adult son that will be moving out on his own soon. He recently asked his girlfriend if she thought they should live together. All on his own, while he was visiting her. She's considering it but thinks he needs to focus on his career first. It will be interesting to see what happens to the boyfriend's family dynamic once he introduces her to his family then moves in with her. I'm most excited to see how they all get along once this young couple marries and has the very first infant in my game. This is the couple I chose for that honor, and I can't wait for the next chapter in their life together.
    • Options
      mightyspritemightysprite Posts: 5,890 Member
      edited March 2023
      To ask what might be @cutecabaret 's question another way, does family dynamic have any in-game effects? What would a given family dynamic cause to happen in the game, that a different family dynamic wouldn't cause?

      Or, are family dynamics essentially cosmetic, just labels that you can earn?
    • Options
      cutecabaretcutecabaret Posts: 56 Member
      Yeah, that's what I'm interested in - does family dynamic DO ANYTHING in the game?
    • Options
      somewhsomesomewhsome Posts: 910 Member
      cutecabaret wrote: »
      So I am looking at the tuning more and it seems a lot of the toddler care interactions are linked to the strict dynamic which is interesting. Gonna have to try playing the game more to see it in practice.

      Yes, it's kinda weird. The game asked me if I want a strict dynamic when my sim was simply offering her toddler a bath.
    Sign In or Register to comment.
    Return to top