I just wanted to check in and say that I really appreciate everyone's comments, thoughts and opinions. You are all giving me great insights into this pack.
Please keep the thoughts coming.
Fate is a riddle and we choose our own answer.Wyrd Girls
1. Occult game play: I'm a low fantasy player myself, but I don't think any less of the pack for not having any occult game play, because you can blend it with occult themes. It makes perfect sense to me that a vampire would want to help their child build a castle diorama, or that a teen wolf would autonomously confront their parents and ask to be treated more like an adult.
2. Activities: All of the new activities tie into the value system (see below), but I give them their own section because you can enjoy them even if you don't care about your child's values. Playing doctor is an adorable way to build mental skill. Keeping a journal is a realistic way to reduce negative moodlets (but be sure to hide it!). I like the various school projects, partly because it's a cute parent-child moment, but also because both the parent and child learn skills from it. Family members can leave notes and pictures for each other on the bulletin board. Toddlers and children can build imagination/creativity using buildem blocks. You also get some new, and more aesthetically pleasing, night lights.
3.Value system: There are five character values each associated with two adult traits. The choices the parent can make from school day popups and kids-asking-for-advice popups are about deciding which values are more important to you. Rather than having categorically good or bad choices, each choice raises one of the child's values and lowers one of the others. Some of them aren't completely true to life, but I prefer that they made it balanced. Many of the new and base game activities that a child can do on their own also build values.
Some of the adult traits add more game play than others. For example, the Conflict Resolution value is a waste of time because neither the positive nor the negative trait offers substantive game play. On the other hand, Responsibility has a powerful affect on career success, and it makes sense too. A child who learns to stay on top of school tasks is better at staying on top of things at work. A child who skips school all the time is more likely to struggle in a job. Manners also has a big impact. Good Manners is like a social superpower, allowing them to charm people to get a boost to a new relationship (there's actually an animation that makes it look like they're casting a spell on the other person), while Bad Manners means they go around scandalizing people with their autonomous burping and farting. Emotional Control also has an impact. I just recently played a former werewolf with Uncontrolled Emotions and it really does make the game more challenging: adult temper tantrums, mood swings and longer lasting negative moodlets. The Emotional Control trait, on the other hand, gives them more ways to resolve negative moodlets such as exercise and music. Empathy is one of the less interesting values. It gives them more ways to interact with sims who have negative moodlets. Sims with the Compassionate trait can comfort them, while sims with the Insensitive trait can make them feel worse. I tend to forget those interactions are there, though.
-No, my almost-elderly mother, I don't think it's a good time for you to try for a baby.
-Yes, person I barely know, you have my blessing to hang out with Johnny Zest.
-No person with the mean, hot-headed and self-absorbed traits, I don't think you should get married.
It expands kids quite a bit by adding manners and things that lead to traits. The traits truly give sims personality. My main sim is argumentative and insensitive and if she's in a household that has a huge impact on how she interacts.
Once I’ve had a pack for a while I have trouble working out how much I use it or remembering what features came with it. But reading all the comments here has helped me see that my family gameplay would be pretty empty without the Parenthood pack. I can’t image how my kids’ and teens’ lives would be if I didn’t have it now. I love so many things that come with the pack: the school projects, the family noticeboard, the doctor set, the journal, parents being able to discipline their kids, even kids making a mess (occasionally). Last night when I played, one of my kids was going through the picky eater phase and was grumbling the whole time while the family sat down together to eat a grand meal. I found that the mum had an interaction (I can’t remember what it was) that basically told off the kid for complaining! I loved that. I use those interactions all the time in my family gameplay. I haven’t ever actively worked towards making any kids turn out in a particular way, so I just choose the pop-up options depending on how I feel the parent/kid dynamic works in that family. The pack just adds so much depth to family gameplay, and I can’t say I’ve ever found any aspect of it irritating. I recommend it.
I gather the Parenthood pack is fairly popular (at least, a recent Sims Community poll ranked it as the best game pack).
Now, I am a big fan of "coming of age" stories. In fact, supernatural or sci fi coming of age stories are my personal guilty pleasure (which is probably why my own SimLit story is one). I'm wondering how well Parenthood fits with growing up and these "coming of age" stories.
At the same time, I must confess I have avoided the Parenthood pack almost from the moment I heard of it. As a parent, I know that every parent has their own ideas of what "good parenting" is. While I do not want to hold that real life debate here, I know that the game - being a game - has to have its own answer to that. The very nature of the pack seems to require parenting interactions that lead to "good" or "bad" outcomes. I worry about how I'm going to feel about that. (Full disclosure, I can't finish the aspiration from the Cats and Dogs expansion because I don't like that "cat jumping on the counter" is considered a "bad" behavior that should be disciplined. )
So, I guess my question comes down to two parts -
Would Parenthood add dimensions to my "coming of age" stories?
Is the Sims definition of "good parenting" ingrained into the pack such that, if I disagree with it, I'm going to have a problem enjoying the pack?
I definitely think if your play style is families then this pack is a good one.
I don’t have it yet as I mainly play with the young adult group. I like setting up first homes and doing a soap opera style.
I would get Parenthood if my play style changed. I like the chance of influencing behaviour whether good or bad.
I like the kids spilling paint when they’re moody. 😂
I also don’t like the fact you have to tell cats off for going on counters. Mayor Whiskers in particular should have free run!
I bought Parenthood on 50% sale just because it was cheap and I thought it would add a couple of nice things to my game. It's not my favourite pack but I think it's nice to have.
I like the character traits, though I agree that the positive ones are too easy to have, especially good manners and responsibility. The school projects are a fun activity for parents and kids or kids and their friends. Having siblings break them is also fun sometimes. I like it when kids make a mess and I like some of the sibling/kid/teen interactions that come with the pack, such as tease about crush, accuse of touching possessions, convince monsters are real and make funny faces. I don't use the parenting interactions much. I hardly ever make my parent sims force or influence their kid to do something or teach their kids to say something.
[*] Curfew. Good concept, not well executed, unless I’m playing it wrong… In TS3 the police ( police!!) would bring the kid home after curfew, and there would be trouble. In TS4…no one seems to care. When the curfew clock strikes …all the mischievous kids can stay out all night because mom and dad are happily snoring in their bed, completely oblivious to the fact that their kids didn’t make it home on time. BUT WILL BILLY EVER COME HOME?! Trust me, no one cares.
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The lack of consequences in this game is one of its biggest issues- it makes everything feel rather bland.
That said, Parenthood still adds that little extra flavor to my stories and I wouldn’t want to give it up!
That's exactly why I like Sims 4 curfew better than the Sims 3 version.
Sims 3 dictates what my society looks like: there is mandatory curfew and it is enforced by the police. They always know where everyone is and home in on them from anywhere in town. They even grab a teenager from the street when he just wants to cross it to the wellness center right across before school. The parents have no say in how they react, they will autonomously scold the child.
In Sims 4 Responsibility value ticks down the longer the young sim breaks curfew. If I want my parents to care, I wouldn't sent them to bed while their kiddo is still missing. I can always direct them to be as angry as they want manually or decide that they don't care. It's my game, my characters, my rules.
I 100% agree with you that mandatory curfew should not be a thing. Sims 4 gives us more freedom this way. My game, my rules, absolutely.
I just don’t feel that this curfew mechanism is very balanced.
I personally miss the curfew police and wish we had a toggle to switch on/ off NPCs like this, the same way we have weather specific toggles or an option to turn off the celebrity system. In TS3 I can have my teens dodge the curfew police ( or the graffiti police ). That is the challenging and fun part for me, to try not to get caught. Unfortunately, in TS4 there’s no system like that in place at all.
I don’t send the parents to bed. They do that themselves. They’d do anything except scold the kid that arrives home late. They used to do this a lot more when the pack was released, nowadays the kid rarely gets reprimanded autonomously, regardless of parental skill level.
See, I already got the parents to activate the bulletin board, shouldn’t that be enough to trigger certain behavior? If I want them to be lenient parents I’d have them ignore the bulletin board completely by not setting the curfew clock to a specific time. Curfew doesn’t exist in a household in which no one cares about who does what and when. But I have to set the house rules through the parents. So when I play as a kid or as a teen, and mischievously stay out after curfew, I would like the parents to act accordingly, especially when they’re members of my active household. I don’t always want to direct my sims, I play with full autonomy on. I don’t always want to tell the parents what to do. I prefer to be in control to some extent, but I want the game to simulate behavior based on whatever traits and likes/ dislikes I give my sims. I want the game to surprise me, but in a logical way, if that makes sense.
“Logical way,” that is something the sims 4 is not great at. I had my criminal sim cheat on his wife, because I decided I wanted to see what happened when he told his jealous wife that he loved the person he cheated with. I wanted to see her get angry, slap his face, shout words at him, stomp away and have her relationship to him plummit ……but as I expected none of that happened…..in fact, nothing happened.
It also bothers me when sims get life styles that I feel they are not supposed to have. I had a farmer ( with his wife and hunting dog ) that moved to Henford on Bagley to have more than just a large greenhouse, but farm animals as well. He also worked part time as a fisherman, and he liked working at the work bench. When time permitted ( which wasn’t often ), after he and his wife took care of all their animals, feeding, milking, collecting eggs, being social with the chickens, cow and dog ( including washing the dog, once or twice a day for getting sprayed by a skunk in the bush ), did green house duties, walked the dog, and worked at his work bench to help earn a few extra dollars to pay bills, he and his wife would occasionally get to rest at night, relax, and sit and talk and enjoy watching tv for a brief time….. well he became a technophobe, because he wasn’t often able to relax and watch tv. Then he hated his tv, and possibly other technology ( maybe the fridge he was always getting food from ), his moods plummeted from being around these things, that were supposed to be relaxing, he wasn’t even able to work at his work bench because of his mood, and he was supposed to like his work bench! This lifestyle was so annoying ( and something he was not supposed to develop ), that I had to cheat if away. I believe lifestyles are something we should have control over, and give our sims if we want them to have them, and not have to cheat them in or out.
Wants, and fears can also be very illogical, I actually preferred whims ( because you could do them or not, and you could x out ones you thought were illogical for your sim ) but wish they had updated them with each pack. Now, my sims always want to listen to music. While that might be logical for some sims, it is not for all my sims. Just because they like certain types of music doesn’t mean they want to listen to it all the time ( some don’t even have a stereo of boom box ).
Anyway, these are just a few examples of ways I do not see the sims 4 being logical and making sense…..
I don't use the parenting interactions much. I hardly ever make my parent sims force or influence their kid to do something or teach their kids to say something.
@haisin The parent influence feature is useless if the player generally controls the child as an active character. You can just tell the child what to do directly. If on the other hand, you want to play around with only controlling the parents and letting the AI control the children (ISBI, but They're my Kids, basically), influence makes a difference. I've tried this and it's helpful for the Child and Teen stages. Children have fairly smart AI for staying on top of their needs, but the parents need to remind them to do their homework and to go to bed on time. Teen AI is maddening. I feel like my parent sim was constantly redirecting them. "Get off the computer and take a shower!"
Post edited by Eleri on
-No, my almost-elderly mother, I don't think it's a good time for you to try for a baby.
-Yes, person I barely know, you have my blessing to hang out with Johnny Zest.
-No person with the mean, hot-headed and self-absorbed traits, I don't think you should get married.
I want to thank everyone for their input on this. You all really helped me out.
In the end, based in no small part on everyone's comments, I did decide to pick up Parenthood this morning. I have to do some playing around with it, but it looks fun.
Again, thank you all.
Fate is a riddle and we choose our own answer.Wyrd Girls
At first, I also wasn't interested in getting parenthood. But then, the playstyle I was using became more centered around children and I wanted more gameplay related to families and children. Granted, I waited until it went on sale, because I didn't think it was worth paying full price for the pack. So far, I'm not disappointed by the gameplay features and I am using mods as well.
Personally, I love the pack. And, yes, it's a bit of a grind (unless you cheat up their Values right before they become YA's). But, then again, having raised three children in RL, a daughter and two sons, I now know and completely understand the old axiom "If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times." Because you must repeat yourself before it truly sinks in. "Why are you jumping on the furniture --- I just told you not to." Face/palm. I did figure out how to look at which choice to give them. I often pick lowers manners, having sorted out that all the kid needs to do to raise their manners again, is to set the table. I love this pack and Growing Together. There is a richness now to family play that was lacking.
Parenthood is very nice addon. The way your sims raises their children will affect them and it gives a whole new depth in your game. If you raise your child well they will get benefits such as good manners. If your sim raises them poorly they will get negative trait. It adds realism to the game and also kind of teaches the consequence of the choises the sim parents makes. CAS items and the furniture are cute too, the hairs are one of the best but it totally is up to you and your taste if thats something you like and want in the game. I am legacy and challenge gamer so for me this kind of family stuff is always welcome. So yeah, do gentle parenting and teach manner to sim kids and they will become good mannered empaths as adult and they will get such traits. Or if you are too hard on them they might get negative traits they suffer from. Those traits can benefit your sim in specific careers also, like if your sim child became empath it benefits them in some careers as adult.
Comments
Please keep the thoughts coming.
2. Activities: All of the new activities tie into the value system (see below), but I give them their own section because you can enjoy them even if you don't care about your child's values. Playing doctor is an adorable way to build mental skill. Keeping a journal is a realistic way to reduce negative moodlets (but be sure to hide it!). I like the various school projects, partly because it's a cute parent-child moment, but also because both the parent and child learn skills from it. Family members can leave notes and pictures for each other on the bulletin board. Toddlers and children can build imagination/creativity using buildem blocks. You also get some new, and more aesthetically pleasing, night lights.
3.Value system: There are five character values each associated with two adult traits. The choices the parent can make from school day popups and kids-asking-for-advice popups are about deciding which values are more important to you. Rather than having categorically good or bad choices, each choice raises one of the child's values and lowers one of the others. Some of them aren't completely true to life, but I prefer that they made it balanced. Many of the new and base game activities that a child can do on their own also build values.
Some of the adult traits add more game play than others. For example, the Conflict Resolution value is a waste of time because neither the positive nor the negative trait offers substantive game play. On the other hand, Responsibility has a powerful affect on career success, and it makes sense too. A child who learns to stay on top of school tasks is better at staying on top of things at work. A child who skips school all the time is more likely to struggle in a job. Manners also has a big impact. Good Manners is like a social superpower, allowing them to charm people to get a boost to a new relationship (there's actually an animation that makes it look like they're casting a spell on the other person), while Bad Manners means they go around scandalizing people with their autonomous burping and farting. Emotional Control also has an impact. I just recently played a former werewolf with Uncontrolled Emotions and it really does make the game more challenging: adult temper tantrums, mood swings and longer lasting negative moodlets. The Emotional Control trait, on the other hand, gives them more ways to resolve negative moodlets such as exercise and music. Empathy is one of the less interesting values. It gives them more ways to interact with sims who have negative moodlets. Sims with the Compassionate trait can comfort them, while sims with the Insensitive trait can make them feel worse. I tend to forget those interactions are there, though.
-Yes, person I barely know, you have my blessing to hang out with Johnny Zest.
-No person with the mean, hot-headed and self-absorbed traits, I don't think you should get married.
I definitely think if your play style is families then this pack is a good one.
I don’t have it yet as I mainly play with the young adult group. I like setting up first homes and doing a soap opera style.
I would get Parenthood if my play style changed. I like the chance of influencing behaviour whether good or bad.
I like the kids spilling paint when they’re moody. 😂
I also don’t like the fact you have to tell cats off for going on counters. Mayor Whiskers in particular should have free run!
I like the character traits, though I agree that the positive ones are too easy to have, especially good manners and responsibility. The school projects are a fun activity for parents and kids or kids and their friends. Having siblings break them is also fun sometimes. I like it when kids make a mess and I like some of the sibling/kid/teen interactions that come with the pack, such as tease about crush, accuse of touching possessions, convince monsters are real and make funny faces. I don't use the parenting interactions much. I hardly ever make my parent sims force or influence their kid to do something or teach their kids to say something.
“Logical way,” that is something the sims 4 is not great at. I had my criminal sim cheat on his wife, because I decided I wanted to see what happened when he told his jealous wife that he loved the person he cheated with. I wanted to see her get angry, slap his face, shout words at him, stomp away and have her relationship to him plummit ……but as I expected none of that happened…..in fact, nothing happened.
It also bothers me when sims get life styles that I feel they are not supposed to have. I had a farmer ( with his wife and hunting dog ) that moved to Henford on Bagley to have more than just a large greenhouse, but farm animals as well. He also worked part time as a fisherman, and he liked working at the work bench. When time permitted ( which wasn’t often ), after he and his wife took care of all their animals, feeding, milking, collecting eggs, being social with the chickens, cow and dog ( including washing the dog, once or twice a day for getting sprayed by a skunk in the bush ), did green house duties, walked the dog, and worked at his work bench to help earn a few extra dollars to pay bills, he and his wife would occasionally get to rest at night, relax, and sit and talk and enjoy watching tv for a brief time….. well he became a technophobe, because he wasn’t often able to relax and watch tv. Then he hated his tv, and possibly other technology ( maybe the fridge he was always getting food from ), his moods plummeted from being around these things, that were supposed to be relaxing, he wasn’t even able to work at his work bench because of his mood, and he was supposed to like his work bench! This lifestyle was so annoying ( and something he was not supposed to develop ), that I had to cheat if away. I believe lifestyles are something we should have control over, and give our sims if we want them to have them, and not have to cheat them in or out.
Wants, and fears can also be very illogical, I actually preferred whims ( because you could do them or not, and you could x out ones you thought were illogical for your sim ) but wish they had updated them with each pack. Now, my sims always want to listen to music. While that might be logical for some sims, it is not for all my sims. Just because they like certain types of music doesn’t mean they want to listen to it all the time ( some don’t even have a stereo of boom box ).
Anyway, these are just a few examples of ways I do not see the sims 4 being logical and making sense…..
@haisin The parent influence feature is useless if the player generally controls the child as an active character. You can just tell the child what to do directly. If on the other hand, you want to play around with only controlling the parents and letting the AI control the children (ISBI, but They're my Kids, basically), influence makes a difference. I've tried this and it's helpful for the Child and Teen stages. Children have fairly smart AI for staying on top of their needs, but the parents need to remind them to do their homework and to go to bed on time. Teen AI is maddening. I feel like my parent sim was constantly redirecting them. "Get off the computer and take a shower!"
-Yes, person I barely know, you have my blessing to hang out with Johnny Zest.
-No person with the mean, hot-headed and self-absorbed traits, I don't think you should get married.
In the end, based in no small part on everyone's comments, I did decide to pick up Parenthood this morning. I have to do some playing around with it, but it looks fun.
Again, thank you all.
I love parenthood honestly :)
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