In Sims 4, I'm God - Must I Always Be in Charge of Drama and Story for EVERY Sim?
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- The Sims 4 has given players creative control to an extreme, and this isn't always a good thing. It increases predictability unless you go out of your way to set up the game, and even then you were the decider. I don't always want to be the decider, I'd like to play along as the story unfolds and make choices for my Sims. I'd like them to have preferences in who they date, and want to be friends with this or that Sim. I'd like them to have a type and to be rejected. I hope someday this can happen in this series.
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The Sims 4 does not feel alive; the world never progresses and it's always the same old world unless you go out of your way to control everything. They need to make the world alive, the world should change without out us stepping in to force it.
Exactly I hate building a whole ass world on my own and nothing happening, I don't even give Sims backstorys anymore because they don't act on it and traits don't even matter either, I should have expected this to happen when I heard we were only getting three traits to fill and not even the ambitious are fun, once you do one it feels like you've done them all, plus they love to brag about exploring but there's nothing interesting to explore and yes I found all the "secrect" spots like the tree I found it on my first playthrough, they even made witches and aliens hellla boring. I always get super embarrassed when people say their favorite pack is a fuckin laundry pack like who wants that? Is that the only thing they can get right? Cause god damn they are only reusing old animations and I hear people say it's because EA listened but I don't buy it, I bet EA rigged the vote because it was easier to make like for example we're getting a knitting pack or something? Over some deadly fun pack (I don't remember the exact names but come on I wanted to work for the grim reaper or something)
Open neighborhoods is the answer... Maybe seeing your neighbor swimming, and leaving in the morning for work would make me appreciate more my neighborhood where I live... Sometimes I feel like I'm alone I'm the game
@@Barbaravieirab They have said it before, they can't do it for sims 4. And why neighborhood and not open WORLD? Open world wasn't the reason for the sims 3 to be so laggy, it was the engine...
Actually I wish that my sims would stay in the houses I put them in... I've wasted hours placing together that have been played before and then a few days later I get back and most of the families are split up and living in different worlds! Soooo frustrating!
@@dandy-dani my fav pack is laundry. I was on a pirated sims 4 until yesterday when i bought the game. Because i love it so much. I really hate accolt gameplay and prefer stuff like laundry. There is planty of accolt packs for you to enjoy. Please respect other ppl's opinions.
The sims 4 we are, literally, controlling puppets. All Sims feels kinda the same, w/o personalities, it's so weird. And I completely agree with you, I don't like playing God all the time, it is soooo frustrating
For me, the sims have become a building simulator, because that is the only feature that EA gives attention (sorry if the English is bad, it's not my main language)
Agreed
Well the original idea for the sims in the 90’s was as a architecture/design simulation, until in development the devs found playing with the people was more fun than just building.
It’s almost like it’s come full circle.
Hmm really? All my characters have different personalities, mainly because theyre my ocs and i already have worlds i created for them and how they act and are, so i just create them in the sims. I get if youre playing the sims regularly it would be so boring, like i cannot imagine just using the regular characters, it so crazy for me i literally delete them all and make my own. But yeah, i totally get where youre coming from dude.
@@bwnnie It's great that some people use sims like this and fully take advantage of that kind of world-building, but I think the whole point of the video is that sims should be enjoyable even if you aren't a very creative person who wants to put in so much time and energy into the game. Don't get me wrong, I also see it as a challenge to make the game interesting since EA didn't, but it still sucks that it's not interesting to begin with. And even if you are creative, it still needs more random stuff happening to keep things from feeling too "planned out".
in context to improve your english, "because *that* is the only feature" is correct grammar.
hope this helps
Story Progression would be the best thing to add to this game, even better than bunk beds. Imagine sending your daughter to prom and her female best friend comes out of the closet and proposes going steady with her, with the only player input being yes or no for you.
Cracked me up, even better than bunk beds indeed.
I do wish there was more stuff like this, even if only in a Chance Card format. Take a page from Paradox with the events/stories they have in games like Stellaris to have more interesting things happen to our Sims. Obviously it would be best if we could see all of that ingame, but I'd settle for a lot of it being purely in written format with just the results being reflected in game.
@@kevinflanagan2543 Crusader Kings II from Paradox is the best analogue here. For those who aren't familiar with how events work in that game: The events have multiple branches and there's some luck involved - even picking the 'best' option can get you a bad result. Character traits have a major impact, and they can sometimes lock you out of certain options or open up new ones.
Much of the fun in CKII is dealing with the randomness the events add to the game, and there's plenty of opportunity for roleplay instead of optimizing your activity. It would be great to see something similar in Sims 4, with same kind of depth and consequences.
@Axel Drans I wouldn't say everyone but the majority of people including myself can't play the sims 4 without mods
@Axel Drans that's one of the things I hate the absolute most when I see kids or teens hanging outside and I'm like.....why aren't ya'll at school with my kid?? :|
wicked whims has attractiveness system that makes relationships more interesting. the fact I need a mod to make it interesting just proves the point that way works now is very bland.
Slice of life gives me some surface level drama but at least it's something
Does it even change anything?
Im using it and I kiss anyone I want
Im a teen so Im not allowed to get wicked whims relationship perks. I don't want the sexual stuff. Do you know another mod with relationship tweaks?
if you want try it out the system or one other nice features without dealing with the sex and nudity related features you can disable it using the mod’s settings in game. you also can download the separate streamer/censorship mod it get rid of the nudity.
@@sadlyicanbarelyread5409 I think you can download the mod and take out what you don't want. if not though I use slice of life and life's dramas mod which adds a bit of depth and realism. I also highly recommend getting Mcc you can control so much using it. Hope this helps
I think you spoke for everyone. I love playing the Sims 4 because the graphics are so great but I miss the story progression of Sims 3. It was also cool to see sims taking the family out to the different lots. The toddlers and children were always out. I feel that part is lacking and you don't see life going on outside your own taking place.
I think it wold be nice to have to work more for that friendship/love relationship and have more drama happening in the game that we didn't have to make happen. I don't even see alien abductions happen much and male sims getting pregnant. To be honest, I can't even remember seeing an alien walking around and I start a lot of new games.
These are solid observations, because it's player directed to that extent. If you do not seek aliens, it's highly unlikely they will come to you. Some people complained about the rates of abduction but clearly we are not all happy with the tuning of that feature. You can own a pack and if you do not seek it out you won't see its features.
@@CarlsSimGuides That is awful. I don't know about everyone but I can tell you how I like to play these types of games: I roleplay as one sim, just one. I can have a household of eight but I'd like to only play one and watch the rest develop around me. That isn't what happens, instead I find enjoyment in Rags to Riches as I know that nobody would ever interfere with my ability to make money.
I agree but I also feel like some of those issues stem from the fact that its not open world. You're confined to sections and in my opinion that takes away from the story progression because if you're not in a certain section why would the game have those people live their lives if you're not around.
@@TheM1844 I don't see why they can't have the entire neighborhood loaded, not the lots, the streets and inbetween locations that're persistent between several lots.
Didn't we all download naars or was it narrs story progression mod because EA messed that up for sims3? Let's be honest even if they tried to fix story progression we'd need a modder to fix it, lol
This is honestly my biggest problem with the Sims 4. I spend all my time making sims and lots but hate playing them because I have to make the game interesting. Interesting things don't just happen organically.The lack of story progression outside the household makes everything just feel hollow.. like the truman show or something.
Yes!!! Ive been saying for so long that it's exactly like the Truman show. Sims only show up where my sim is at that moment. It's weird. If I'm playing as a fit sim, all of my townies show up at the gym too and boom, my whole world is buff 🤦♀️
Honestly me too.. before (in early titles) I didnt build as much and dont really like creating my own sims (too lazy to do it) but in Sims 4 those 2 are the only thing that makes me play it
Haha thats why I just build now
I agree. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to go through 20+ loading screens to switch households then switch back.
Much what I said in my own comment! I also focus on cas and build stuff because the actual story telling get's boring when you have to do everything. Especially, when the Sim you are trying to play wants to just talk to plants all day. Not even video chat with others on the phone. Or you send them to visit others and they (or other Sim) just take off to another room.....Ughhh...
I mean, the only thing you can't control on the Sims is their obsession with drinking water and eating ice cream/cupcakes.
EclipseSeth And the damn popcorn 🙃
Don’t forget standing up during dinner and swapping chairs!
Don’t forget that modeling clay laying around!!!
And dancing!
And the random sims coming into your house to use your computer!
I generally don't mind the lack of gender preferences *for the sim that you're playing as*. What i think is more important is trait compatibility. Cheerful sims should not get along super easily with gloomy or hotheaded sims, and yet they do. There's also no "this relationship is moving a bit too fast" thing? Like if a sim feels uncomfortable at your attempt to kiss them way too soon, it should be a lot harder or maybe impossible for the relationship to continue being romantic.
Also, a smaller pet peeve, but the mean interactions aren't nuanced at all. Maybe i'd be more inclined to use them if the interactions were less "yell at", "slap" or "throw drink", and more "be sarcastic about positive traits", or "imply superior beauty/intellect"
I love what you implied here with the evil traits. I feel like they're really not trying to make it as serious//adult like as we'd like it to be because they're trying to cater to kids more but the sims shouldn't even be for kids imo ⚰️ , we want drama, depth, meaningful relationships, even more romantic interactions etc without it being like let's disappear in this shower fog fully clothed 🤣
You're "This relationship is moving too fast" comment made me laugh. I'm currently playing in a tiny home an with the relationship boost from that along with a high charisma skill, I can max out the friendship and romance meters of a random passerby with one enchanting introduction. Basically I can go from hello to marry me immediately.
Kaldii while situations like that are kind of hilarious, they shouldn’t be so easy. If your sim marries a sim after knowing them for a minute, the family life should be an absolute disaster.
@@PocketDeerBoy Of course, that's why it made me laugh. It's so ridiculously broken at the moment with how easy it is to build relationships. Everytime I get a notification that someone has died I'm like "who the heck was that" but because my sim met them once for 30min and became instant best friends, they're sad for 2 days.
I mean the unflirty trait helps...but yeah that doesnt last long lol
How are you able to put every negative thought I've had about Sims 4 gameplay into words so constructively? My jaw is on the floor. 😮
Agreed, after a while it just feels like the game becomes monotonous, because I'm not really playing, since I can't lose. It's no better than a walking sim. Gosh, story progression would be AMAZING in the sims4.
@@Stettafire Right. Like in other Sims games, you couldn't get it this easy unless you cheated, or worked REALLY hard to level up to get it easy. But it was at least an option on the table.
Now, at base level, I lose interest so fast because I realize that everything I do, no matter what it is, has 0 consequences long term. Trial and error become trial and constant success. Family to family, it's the same. exact. thing.
I'm eager to see the improvements the community voted on, but think they need to look on past titles for inspiration. This game gets some things right but it could lean on the strengths of its predecessors instead of abandoning them.
@@CarlsSimGuides What improvements? I've heard nothing about them changing the sims themselves just adding more junk in packs. Aparently everyone voted for knitting :/
@@aubreymorgan9763 There was another vote for updates or something that the community wanted.
When he said, “it’s a life sim, so let’s simulate lives for everyone...” I felt that
Attraction systems, a MEMORY system that changes future sim behaviors, preferences for more than just bar drinks (music, tv stations, colors, clothing styles [there are preset clothing styles like boho, hipster, etc], pets, age groups, lot types, careers, activities, are so important. It’s crazy I have to use mods in order to create that
Yes! And fears!
Memory system would be so nice ! Even one like in TS2 where you could go and check how the premade sims life had unfolded until now, you could see if they were married and divorced, when they had their first kiss etc it was a bit surface level but still it was hilarious to go back and reread all their memories imo
Do you have a mod for those preferences? I would love that in game
Zoe Thomson
Slice of Life by Kawaiistacie adds a lot of those things. Personality types, memories, illnesses, turn ons and turn offs. It’s really great!
Zero is a modder who also adds more depth to emotional life events such as being cheated on, divorce, etc. I really like her mods for adding gameplay too.
I also like Zerbu’s emotion mod that makes time spent in an emotion add up like a skill. Having high levels in any one emotion “skill” makes the sim get a strong moodlet of that emotion at random times. This makes it more important to keep your sims’ spirits high, as long periods spent in sadness will make your sim remember how sad their life has been, or conversely being happy for a long time will make your sim remember their happy times.
Emotional inertia by roburky is also essential for me. Can’t play without it.
@@tabitha8232 I've never used mods in TS4 but maybe now is my time... I'll check out your suggestions!
One of the things EA has been pushing with TS4 is the story-telling aspect. "Tell your story!" is all over their advertising and social medias. The problem is, it takes so much time and effort to set stories up, because you have to do it all from scratch. In TS2 and TS3, the neighborhoods were absolutely filled with pre-made stories. Sims had histories and relationships with other sims that you can tell went way back. It was easy to pick up these storylines and carry them on in whichever way you wanted. Countless fans, myself included, became invested in these characters and their lives because we were able to play their story. In TS4, there is nothing like that. The pre-made families have no connections to other households, and most of their relationships are contrary to what their bios say (The BFFs are all acquaintances, and Eliza and Bob Pancakes are sweethearts when you start!) If you want connections, you have to make them yourself. I have tried doing this before, but I gave up because it was so tiresome and I knew the payoff wasn't even going to be worth the effort. In 2 and 3, you had the option to create stories from scratch. In 4, it is your _only_ option.
I think that social options should never be greyed out, like how you being sad means you can’t tell jokes. Instead your sim should just try and fail to tell the joke and be embarrassed.
but who jokes around if their parents died or something of the sort
@@meetdamaka Jokes can be a means of coping. Joking while grieving is also a great way to ruin joke!
Sims 2 was much better when it came to relationships, they had attractors and detractors, consequences for cheating, et all. It’s something I really miss while playing 4.
Yes. I remember when I first played the Sims 2 again after years I moved my Sim into a apartment. The other people in the house had a big fight after just a couple of minuites and are still enemies. In the sims 4 everyone is just friendly with each other.
But I seem to be the only one who really dislikes story progression. I'm too much a control freak for that...
Blue Sea Nah not at all. My sims don’t age. I wish I could age up the ones they’re friends with so I can develop relationships but I have tons of young adults in 3 generations of one bloodline.
I really don't get the hype around the relationships in the Sims 2.i was playing it again the other day, yes it took two days instead of one to get a husband but beyond that I felt no difference between how my couples acted in Sims 4 and Sims 2
The day my Sims 2 husband passed away his freshly widowed wife went out and hooked up with a woman she just met, I don't think she even noticed that her husband was gone. Didn't even cry once
Generally I felt as if a lot of the characteristic features like hobbies, interest, turn ons and turn offs were kinda there, but ultimately inconsequential
@@wannabecreative1460 I'm not too keen on story progression either, for the same reason! I do understand why some would want it. I have aging & story progression off in 4, just like I did 3.
@@svogel6459 right, I played Sims 2 until early 2018 and feel like many people simply forgot how static the relationship system actually was. Sims 2 didn't have neighbourhood story progression at all and you could still marry a sim without them being attracted to each other at all with only a little more work put into their relationship. And their character values etc didn't impact their social interactions much either.
One of my most fond memories playing sims was in sims 3 when I accidentally found out that the brother of my female sim, who had moved away after aging up to an adult, had started his own life - because the daughter of my sim befriended the daughter of my sims' brother in school totally by accident and it just happened. Didn't even know the man had met a woman and made a kid, but it felt so nice and real, because it happened while I continued playing my own household without telling that brother to meet someone and make a baby. I was like 'wait, the daughter of my sim brought a kid home from school with the same last name as my sim has' and so i looked up the family tree and there I could see it. I was so surprised!
It's something that sims 4 does not have, and because of that (and all the other things that made sims unique and had some sort of story progression) I never really play sims 4 anymore. It's so... repetitive.
EA Games: *watches this video*
Also EA: "It's clear what the people want...GET HYPED FOR THE RUBBER DUCKY STUFF PACK!"
Kara with gun
EA: “We are so proud of our Sims 4 community and we understand that there’s a lot that you want us to fix. Instead of allowing Maxis the budget to work on important systems that will be patched in for free, we at EA think that the best solution is to push the cash cow studio to make trend-riding paid DLC to distract the players for a week from the glaring issues that we caused! We love our players!”
A rubber ducky stuff pack would be cool though- but that's coming from a rubber ducky hoarder lol
Its probably for Sims 5 at this point
Ya, a rubber ducky pack would have been more fun than what they actually did with Star Wars
Sims 4 is a beautiful game, it just seems to lack depth in so many ways that I get bored quickly. I can see that they are trying, but I just don't feel like the budget is what it once was for the series. People keep on about Sims 2 and 3 because everything seemed so fully fleshed out. I did use mods for TS2, (and 3) lots of them actually but they were mostly to fine tune what was already there. I feel frustrated by so much in TS4, no random events requiring fire service, burglars, police, repo man, exterminators. Sims don't respond properly to lifechanging events etc. They just don't make games like they used to, got to make sure those investors get more out of it than the people giving them money. God help if they go into TS5 with the same mindset :'(
Economics is a fickle thing... It may be an inevitability that we see some decline in participation for people who wanted depth. This could lead to worse problems over time as those people dry up and their voices leave the discussion. People DO move on after all.
Sims4 lack of notice or appreciation is one of my biggest pet peeves! For example, I spend HOURS redecorating their home and they walk in like, "Ehhh... Its got a roof." TS3 spoiled me, cuz i remember sims bitching and complaining if a room was up to their standards. lol
@@LadyYepperz All the way back in The Sims 1, you buy a cheap chair and the sims would go "yuck." Then you compare the music. I recently got SimCity 2000 and the music blew me away. The Sims 1 had the same quality.
They realised people would buy it regardless and that they could make more money by treating the game purely as a monetised product and putting less effort into the actual experience. The profit motive ruins everything as usual
Sad thing is, SIMS 5 might never come. Now, look at Microsoft - what did they do? They made Windows 10 the last Windows ever, which is renewed only by updates every half a year. What that means? Live service. Other gaming companies, including EA, is jumping on this bandwagon. Live service. Money making machine for the likes of EA. I think they will be pushing new and new content for TS4 to the end of times. And that is a problem, because the core of this game itself is broken.
The only hope would be for things to happen as it happened with Outer Worlds. Fallout series got botched. Previous developers and talented people united and created Outer Worlds, very Fallout like game under no big company. And people LOVED it. If some old Sims creators, people form Maxis and even talented fans united under some indie name, they'd make a true spiritual successor of The Sims.
Oh, I remember creating a household with two scientists. I wanted them to be a couple and get married, but the lady scientist created a Plumbot capable of love and the other scientist fell in love with it. They got married and even asked the lady scientist for blessing. That was great. Lady scientist married some famous actor with a funny last name, by the way. I didn't plan any of it and it was so much fun to see.
In The Sims 3 you and your characters were part of the world around them. It's such a shame that we don't have this in The Sims 4.
(Sorry, if i messed up any grammar here, I'm russian.)
You're grammar/english is great! And i totally agree. Ik this is an old comment, but it's so true! Sims 4 is literally like every ounce of everything random/interesting HAS to come from you. There's no other way. It's literally like writing your own book, but instead of having any interesting characters no matter how hard you try to write them, they're always just bland pieces of bark that don't feel like characters, they just feel like puppets.
I've been playing Sims 3 for almost 10 years now and have only felt the need for one mod (only as of recent). I've been playing Sims 4 for about 5 years now, and have tried so many mods to try to make the game more interesting. I think that says a lot.
Same. I tried Sims 4 for a couple months and got bored. Now I'm back to Sims 3 and haven't gotten bored yet.
i have so many mods and so much cc in sims 4 that it's pathetic and anytime the game crashes and forces me to remove all cc and mods and play it as is.....i hate it so much. It gets so boring so fast. I never had this issue with Sims 3, I never even considered mods or cc with sims 3
I never used mods in the previous games....I can barely stand to play TS4 without them!
@Buzzy
Agreed! I think one of the biggest reasons Sims 3 is still so loved is that you actually art part of the town you're playing in. In Sims 4 it requires effectively loading a new area to even go next door, nevermind leaving the neighborhood itself!
I still have fond memories of building a house on a hilltop overlooking the town (can't remember which map/world it was, one of the default ones) and how absolutely amazing it looked in winter at night from the back balcony. ...because the town was actually alive and things were happening.
I really hope they go back to the town/world in Sims 5.
All of you should try TS3 with Zebru Ultimate Careers and rabbit hole doors and rugs. Once you play TS3 without rabbit holes you will get another 10 years of playtime.
In the Sims 3, I would make two sims I wanted to get together but I would place them in different houses to set up a romance. I did this because I like a courtship phase.
So, I would play one and leave the other to their own devices while I built up skills. During this time, the other sim would go about their business, getting job promotions and meeting other sims on their own. Then I'd start them dating and eventually get engaged, married and then move in together. It was interesting to see who the unplayed sim made friends with (sometimes they had quite a few) and I was even surprised to see that maybe they had even done a little flirting with someone else along the course of their time alone. When a sim in Sims 3 talked to someone, they created friendships whether they were being played or not.
Now, fast forward to Sims 4. I'll use Discover University as an example.
I enrolled a sim into university. He met someone there he really liked. In fact HE was the one who flirted with his dorm mate with no help from me (his dorm mate wasn't one I would have chosen having made a sim for him who wasn't in university). But the heart wants what the heart wants and with so few autonomous interactions in the Sims 4, I wasn't about to deny him his own choice in the matter.
My sim went to college for four terms and upon graduating and going home, he called his sweetie over, became engaged (on his whim) and asked him to move in. Once I had the ability to control the other sim, I checked his friends list.
Yeah. My sim was the only one there. How could this happen when for four weeks I had seen this sim talk to everyone in the dorm? And in the bar. And in the library. And in the student commons. I remember watching him chatting with other sims all the time! Some were even townies that had come to the dorm as a "friend" of one of the sims living there. How could he have not even made an acquaintance?
In Sims 3, it seemed that there were a LOT more autonomy than there is in the Sims 4. In fact, I found the Sims 3 highly entertaining! Just about the time I thought I had seen it all, they would come up with another reaction to something or someone that would surprise me and have me laughing at their antics. I miss that. I really do.
Yeah, (1) it's weird having someone move into your household and finding they have no pre-existing relationships and (2) it made it more interesting going out in public. "Oh, those two are talking? They're really hitting it off, they might be a cute couple". Also it was really funny when it would turn out Sims you didn't play had 1 or 2 Sims they HATED
That and how you can ask NPCs their jobs (Caleb Vatore is nearly always working at Dewe Cheatem & Howe), but if you move them in they're unemployed and have no skills. It also bugs me that 'rich' sims like the Landgraabs and the sims in Strangerville who had supposedly mysteriously earned cash all have the same base of 20k that anyone else gets. Some of those families should be millionaires just to afford their lot's bills.
@@Oscitant_Otter I have moved in three adult sims in my current playthrough and they all came with the jobs they said they had. Most of them came with skills as well, although the distribution didn't always make sense (Catarina Lynx's highest skill when I moved her in was Gardening, not Cooking as per her career or Pet Training as per her obsession with cats, and Sofia Bjergson has *8* guitar skill for some reason which is more than Candy Behr who is a professional musician).
@@imperiallarch7610 Maybe it's an update thing? I moved in Caleb just a day or two ago, and he's a secret agent now.
The same thing just happened to me! I just had my sim start dating a Gym Trainer in San Myshuno. Had them date for a while whilst my sim worked on her career and skills. My sim got pregnant so she asked him to move in and he had $20,000, no current home, no career (even though I know where he worked!!), no friends or relationships. Just my sim and her cat although I saw him interacting with other sims in the world when he'd ask my sim on dates. It was so strange. The game seriously lacks in that department.
Remember all the sliders in the sims 3 option menu? Man I miss that... I feel like I had much more control over the gameplay. Even the autonomy had a slider!
And despite that, even Sims 3 lacked a lot of the stuff mentioned in this video.
@@MinimiMax Not as much as Sims 4 xd
@Axel Drans I remember having Babies and Toddler stages lasting Two Days while Teen-Adult would last over 200 Days.
You've hit the nail on the head here. I am constantly starting new games, playing for a few sims weeks only to realise I am playing the same game I always play. Irrespective of what skills/jobs/hobbies I'm working with for those sims. More depth would be a game changer, it's just a shame that after 5 years it still hasn't happened.
hell, i even catch myself creating the same sims over and over. the same hair color and cut, the same clothes. i do not have the creativity to be writer, producer, and director.
I voted for a trait overhaul, as well. I think it would be awesome if they did go back through basegame and the expansions to clean up bugs and add new features (not new clothes). I am not a game developer or even remotely savvy with coding so I cannot say if this would be easy or not.
I believe it can be done with some effort. Many of these are complaints that have existed half a decade. Not everything needs to be fixed, and not every person's complaints can even come close to that... but they could absolutely address some of these ideas and many of them are on the survey list. My fear is that as much as we attract people who want these changes on this channel, that there are ample people who are entirely satisfied with dollhouse mode *without mods*.
@Axel Drans lmaoooo but also I just don't understand where they pull inspiration from when they do make clothes....nothing is like normal or 'trendy' looking. It's so weird, they should invest in hiring modders tbh....
Axel Drans The amount of clothes we are offered is appalling. Especially hair styles! It gets even more depressing when I see what’s available for toddlers and children...
@@Hestia23 I swear! They basically make frankenmesh of things they've done before for clothes and hair and they don't even bother for children and toddlers :/
@@Hestia23 toddlers have like no clothes
Mods are the only reason I still play the game.
Ive have been using mods so long I couldnt remember what it felt like to play a vanilla game. So after the last update I started a vanilla save, just to get a feel for sims 4 once more. It wasnt long before i was screaming in frustration and adding my mods back in. lol
To be honest, that was the main reason I bought the game in the first place.
I've used mods, (and many of them) in every sims game since the first one. Don't know how anyone can play any sims game without mods and without a lot of them. Those that don't use mods must didn't know the mods existed to even want to keep playing a vanilla sims game, because mods have made the games tons better. I'm not even mad that mods are needed for a game like this. Just want the developers to keep placing new mechanics into the game, so the modding community can manipulate those mechanics and give us what we really want in our game.
I remember back in the day one of my families in TS3 had a pretty young adult maid and every time she came in to clean, the husband would get that moodlet that's like 'there's an attractive sim in company' or something (it's been forever since I played). So I had him chat her up while she was at the household until he built up enough relationship with her to invite her over while his wife was at work, and oh man did they do EVERYTHING sinful. Pretty soon after, that notification popped up that was like "uh oh! ppl are talking" and his wife found out and HATED him (their relationship dropped HARD) and so did their kids like it was so bad and weird in the house that I had him spend the following nights in a resort and then eventually moved him out of the household into his own little starter home. As his kids grew up, they remained acquaintances and it was always weird when they saw him around the town. All this is to say, ALL OF THAT DRAMA stemmed from the sim's initial desire that was completely of his own simulated volition. Of course, I intervened to act on this desire but it didn't feel like controlling mindless robots like that same scenario would if I were to reenact it in TS4 :(
Sims 4 is TOO NICE even when you make conflict/drama for them, I made a sim, made her very mean and nasty to this one sim only using mean interractions and even while fighting they still end up having casual conversations and the other sims even keeps inviting my sims to eat
I was playing the sims 3 the other day (mum and 2 kids) and right after I started playing the mum and her boyfriend got killed by a meteorite while on a date in the park. I’ve played the game for YEARS and never had that happen before!!
My teen sim ended up raising her child brother while trying not to fail school and doing a part-time job to pay the bills.
Totally not what I had planned for the game but it ended up being even better. I love that kind of randomness and the fact that things don’t always go well.
For me it's all just too easy - like you said, all sunshine and rainbows, no failure. No chance of failure = no buy-in as a player. Nothing really matters.
No real wants or fears.
No real personality.
I agree with pretty much everything you said. Sometimes it's fun to watch the stories that unfold, and step in occasionally "as God" to adjust what happens... the Sims should all have their own lives and I can mess with them.
This is the most shallow sims game in history :( Hopefully they can improve it.
I actually never noticed how much sims can't have failures until he mentioned it....imagine getting fired someday randomly and not being able to reapply at that same job again because now you're relationship with the boss is stranded. Just having maybe more in depth relationships with coworkers that could also affect your job etc that would be nice
I saw an announcement they might try to do multiplayer again for Sims 5 so it could get worse...
@@merchantfan yeah imma just say this once: the Sims should never be an online multiplayer game. It is not the purpose of a life simulator, all customisation would be lost, CC would end, there'd be such severe restrictions on what you could do in the game ... We have as much online interconnectivity as we could ever need with the gallery. Kthnxbai xx
@@TeaAddict It's actually the opposite there's alot of life simulation games that are super good for cc creators to monetize on they just aren't as developed gameplay wise like the sims. I'm thinking of like sansar, imvu etc
lindsarinifettucini I meant out of the Sims 1, 2, 3 and 4. I’m sure it is extremely difficult to develop a fully fleshed out life simulator and that’s why the game hasn’t ever really had much competition, but I hope that will change with Paralives
I agree... that's why I use mods. I shouldn't have to, but to make it more interesting I use them.
Amanda Sexton same.
What mods do you use? 😊
Slice of Life for the win!
And McCommand Center off course
@@trude8073 I use a TON of mods. MCCOMMAND, Wicked Whims, Lil Ms Sam, Sims4me, Kawaiistacie, Sacrificial
You name it... I use it
Mods I use to fix most of these issues besides MCCC and Wicked Whims are:
Slice of Life by KawaiiStacie
Have Some Personality Please! by PolarBearSims
The Realistic Reactions Mod by scaldwellhu
Meaningful Stories by roburky
Ages Behaviour Tweaks by Zero
Know Your Co-Workers & Classmates by Phaeriia/SimulatedFlowers
Other Mods that help but aren't NPC related are:
IR - Divorce! by Zero
Share More News! by Zero
All these mods play well with each other so no worries there. I also use Preferences | Custom Lot Trait by LittleMsSam just so NPC sims will do the things they should be doing on certain venue lots.
Thanks for the suggestions!!
I think, if anything, Slice of Life and Meaningful Stories are the two most important on this list. If anyone doesn't like mods but want to completely change their gameplay, those two alone will do _so_ much.
Thanks for the list. I was looking for something like this!!!
I use MCC and also a mod from Little Miss Sam that brings a risk for pregnant women, they can lose the baby at any time before birth, become sterile if the birth is problematic and even die themselves giving birth. Doesn't happen very often of course but when it does it really makes for a story.
I had a sort of legacy family, the founder was the female sim I made, she went to uni and met a guy that lived in the same dorms, they married the day they graduated and went to live in a small house and the very next day he got a phone call from a one night stand letting him know she had just given birth to his daughters (twin girls), that of course was from having MCC installed.
At that time his wife had just learned she was pregnant and the three kids were almost raised together, the girls coming over to the house almost daily to play with their brother and even stayed overnight very often. Their kids also hand together and are all friends making for a huge extended family.
Something else to happen in the family is when the kid of my founders married a pretty girl he met at university after he graduated, they lived in the family home and were expecting their first child very early on after the marriage.
She miscarried the baby just after they came back from getting an ultrasound (another mod I use), so when they lost the baby I knew it was a baby boy, that made it real for me.
After they mourned their first child they tried again and she carried her second child to term , and let me tell you I was very careful with her during her pregnancy even though I knew it has nothing to do with he way the mod decides what happens with the baby, but I was completely in the story.
Then she gave birth to her baby girl and died from complications during the delivery ! Luckily her husband was there and successfully pleaded with the grim reaper so she came back to life. That made the story even "better", obviously she has a medical issue and has a hard time giving birth, having another child was too risky but they both wanted another kid so they decided to take precautions before trying again because they didn't want her to die and leave her daughter an orphan.
She was in the Botanist career so she obviously had heard about death flowers and decides to try and breed one plant to use the flower to prevent death. Her mother in law and founder of the dynasty was into writing, she was about to finish her life long aspiration and had heard rumors about book of life that could bring back dead sims.
The whole family worked tirelessly to achieve both goals and only when it was done did they try again for another baby.
She got pregnant almost immediately and that was a relief because the hard birth of her daughter could have left her sterile, and the pregnancy was progressing well, she was in her third trimester close to giving birth when she almost miscarried again and the baby was almost lost. After the birth of their baby boy they decided to abandon their dream of a big family because even if they could prevent her for dying they couldn't be sure they wouldn't lose another baby.
This story was the most incredible and interesting thing to ever happen to my sims in this game and it was 100% thanks to mods.
That was the most beautiful sims story I ever heard. It was just so realistic and felt like something from the sims 2. If the sims 4 can pull this of anything is possible
What mods are you using?
@Sammy Jo
She said MCC and a mod from Little Miss Sam
I love these kind of mods, I just wish they wouldn't crash or cause bugs like your sims leg disappearing etc. I have a really good computer but mods being destroyed by updates or batch fixes is a thing, then you have to clean and re-upload all of them -_-
lindsarinifettucini Yeah MCC causes a lot of issues for me.
The most drama sims 4 has is when my dead mother called me the day after her death to ask if I want to go to the talent show.
Thanks for these videos and your channel. Your site has been pretty much my exclusive sims info center for as long as I've been playing sims and it's so much fun to see your videos after all that time.
At this point I only play sims 2. The lack of autonomy in 4 hurts it's gameplay. In 2 I tried to make some teen from my two families friends and the ended up disliking each other. One of my families had a stepfather and he ended up cheating on his wife due to his romance aspiration.
One of kids ended up with the want to see his ghost. I that point I assumed that the kid just wanted him dead at that point.
While 2 lacks the story progression of 3, it's ability to make sims seem like they have wants of their own without your input.
It really makes the sims in 2 seem real. Usually when I have kids in 2, when they become a teen I set their aspiration based on their interests and hobbies. Like few of my child sims had interests in art and dance. So, I decided to give them a job in music or painting in the future. Depth like that is just completely missing in 4 and I would play 3 if my pc wasn't part potato.
Yes 2 and 3 are golden
same situation for me. i would LOVE to play TS3 but it runs like a chainsaw. so instead of playing the current game, i play TS2, which stopped offering new content in 2009 and is STILL 1000x better than TS4
I wish I could play the sims 2
I agree. Last night when I was playing the sims 2, I tried to move a townie teen into a playable household and she declined the invitation, so I cheated her into the house. Within 3 minutes, she "ran away from home." One of my sims called the police station to report her missing but the cops weren't able to find her and bring her back, so she stayed missing for a long time, then randomly returned to the lot 15 days later on her own to age up into an adult, and the first "want" she rolled was "move out." Like damn, that girl was not kidding when she said she didn't wanna live there.
These days I only really play Sims 2. When it comes to aspiration I sometimes give them what I want for them, but usually I pick based on their zodiac sign. I do it based off how the game gives aspirations to townies and NPC’s. Depending on the sims zodiacs the game will hand them these aspirations:
Pisces: Knowledge
Aquarius: Family
Capricorn: Fortune
Sagittarius: Knowledge
Scorpio: Fortune
Libra: Romance
Virgo: Knowledge
Leo: Popularity
Cancer: Family
Gemini: Fortune
Taurus: Romance
Aries: Popularity
Doing this along with mostly playing to achieve my sims wants, makes me feel less in direct control of their lives and more along for the ride.
I also mostly hook up my sims based off the attraction between them. I very rarely hook sims up up who don’t even have a bolt of attraction towards each other.
Sims 3:
I made a homeless sim and played the guitar for her monies and totally immersed myself into the sims 3's thriving world and it was so much fun because each day was unpredictable.
One day she found love and I thought- _sure, maybe it's time to trade rags for a loving home_
But after I got her pregnant and moved her in with him I found out he had _3 other girls with full romance bars_ I moved her out and it was now winter, she was homeless again, and was expecting a baby.
Eventually she got a job and a home and raised her daughter by herself and I was so disgusted by the other townie that it never felt right to pair her with another guy until this random townie won me over. And they got married.
(More shenanigans occured but you get the idea)
I love the sims 4, but every story I try to set up feels too forced and now I just work on grinding super sims.
yeah, ts3 may have bad graphics but at least the world felt real
In the tutorial it says “make your own story” yet you don’t understand the full extent of that phrase until later when you start playing.
And looool story progression. The thing that drove me to start using mods actually was the fact that I tend to uh...make a lot of babies 😅 with my gameplay style and I kept running into a problem where, because townies don’t have story progression, the world became filled with nothing but old people and my super Chad sims’ children. No one else 😂
"I'm a stork, this is my life now". I totally felt that. I agree with every point that you're making. I don't know anyone who would disagree with this. Some say "trash it and make Sims 5", and while that's fine we need to take into account the amount of money we have put into this game to be so underwhelmed by it. They need to fix it. They can totally turn this around. I still have faith that they can, 'will they?' is the ultimate question. I appreciate what they've done so far with the adjustments but these major aspects that are missing makes it a huge problem for most of us Simmers. I hope y'all voted twice (phone and computer) on the community survey.
I don't use mods, but I'm mainly a builder and a sim creator in TS4. Playing becomes bland after a while. I've never been as active in CAS or build/buy as I have with TS4. My other games have two saves maybe tops, families that i played with from vanilla. In TS4 I have around 15 saves (not counting the 20 or so I've deleted over time). It's such a shame. I never want to actually play the game anymore, which was the whole point of loving the franchise in the first place.
Great video, Carl. I truly hope they step it up and improve our game.
Godzilla: we need to take into account the amount of money we have put into this game
Me: hold my beer *takes out all expansions since sims 1*
They're not going to. Nothing is going to change until people stop BUYING this crap. They keep doing it because their consumer base keeps letting them get away with it.
Creating your own drama doesn't even work as efficiently as id like either. I had one of my Sims choose to get a divorce and even though he's the one who did it he's been depressed for several Sims days and just keeps crying and is too sad to do anything. I 100% agree with you.
I love the Sims but I just get really bored with TS4. I never got bored like this in previous Sims games, but if I'm not trying to level up plants or get a degree or build something new, I'll start a new sim, get all excited, and get completely bored with them after a day or two. Especially if I have fun pursuing a relationship because I HATE the burden of adding extra sims to my household by getting married and having a baby and then having to train the toddler, take care of the spouse, have 2 careers, etc. etc., but it's the goal of getting to that point that keeps me interested. I just hate the result. University has alleviated some of that since I have new long-term goals to focus on, but the games still aren't that fun.
The best playthroughs I've had are when something random happens, like the time I had a married couple running a farm and the wife died of heat exhaustion when I didn't know that was a thing and the husband got remarried. That was interesting. The BEST game I ever played was the Indie household in TS2. He got married, had a couple of kids, grew a cow plant, and the cow plant kept eating the nannies so I had 10 identical ghost nannies roaming the property. Then one of the ghost nannies scared the teenage son to death and the mother resurrected him but she didn't pay the Grim Reaper enough and he came back as a zombie. All totally unexpected, all totally friggin hilarious!! Best game ever. THAT's what The Sims should be. But TS4 is devoid of all of that. Cow plants don't even eat random people in TS4 -- that I know of. It's never happened in my game. Cow plants eat when you feed them or choose to take the cake, and if you don't feed them for a day, they die. Boom, gone in the blink of an eye. What's the point?
TS4 is too tame, too controlled, to bland, to empty, too boring. If the player doesn't do it, it doesn't happen. End of story. Literally. I'm a creative person but I just can't figure out what else to do in the game. There's no challenge. Even making money is insanely easy. There's no struggle at all to get through life. If I want a poor sim, I have to keep using the money cheat to delete their funds. For the last 5 years, I've just resorted to the same habits over and over: pick a skill or an aspiration to level and do it. Once it's over, I'm instantly bored. My characters have no depth. They're mostly the same. Nothing else happens in the game. It sucks.
Also...lol @ "I'm having pancakes"... 😂
the fact that to have decent gameplay you have to install: WW - attractiveness system, meaningful stories, SOL addons and like 50 more mods proves how bad that game really is uhh
#DramaQueen i cant download slice of life anymore :( please help! i cant get the website to work
@@jeffwilkins7272 You can try to open it in a different browser
Is there any way to install the attractiveness part of WW? I don't really want any of the sexual stuff, but the attractiveness system is cute
@@phisograph if you're willing to spend a bunch of time crawling through the settings, yeah, it's real modular, turn off a bunch of the settings relating to sex and nudity, maybe also autonomy, re-enable woohoo/try for baby. One minor thing in ww that I adore is there's a cheap reward trait that makes a sim reject sex, which is great if you want a sim that's sex-repulsed for any reason. I don't have city living and thus don't have unflirty, so I find this trait real useful for any ace sims I want to make.
Anyway, while there's lots you can do to make ww more inline with your preferences, it being there means sex will still be mentioned on some of the buffs, even the attractiveness ones, and the related traits in the rewards store will still be there. Idk your exact needs in this regard but if having that there on the periphery is okay with you, then it's still worth checking out, if you look around through the settings and decide that it will still be too much you can always delete it again, but if even seeing references in some places is too much, you might need to pass this up.
Lyric Authority i believe in game you can set likeliness of sex etc and set it to 0. It’s hidden somewhere in the many menus but I have seen it. Haven’t actually tried it yet, but I definitely want to bc the attractiveness mod was really interesting as it actually threw obstacles at my gameplay (what a twist!)
I LOVED that rant!!! It was like hearing my complaints in your voice!!
i like the name "Carl's Sim Guides". Its straitforward and to the point.
The sims 3 was my favorite game, i didn't care about the graphics, all i cared for was the gameplay, the drama, the story progression, god it was beautiful.
As a primary family centric story teller. I've very few issues with things. But I know that's just one playstyle. So nice to hear some other perspectives.
We get plenty of kind people on my channel but it's still always nice to see someone disagree who is refreshingly aware theirs is not the only way to play. thank you.
Right, I personally switch between playing with and without mods every couple of weeks, and even when I feel like it's the mods that makes me enjoy the game I tend to find something new when I return to "vanilla" gameplay, so I haven't been annoyed with the game itself apart from actual bugs. But I can see why people who like other styles of playing would be frustrated with the points Carl mentioned here. I actually hated the uncontrollable neighbourhood progression in Sims 3 and also the total freeze in Sims 2, so I'm decently happy with the aging on/off switch in Sims 4, since I like being in control of all Sims at once.
Yeah for that you're right, everytime I do bigger families with kids there's always something happening but the chance cards are so repetitive , perhaps they could add more or they could have a bigger impact in the game/sims lives ?
Tbh story progression is my biggest turn off when it comes to the sims 3 while I find it okay in the Sims 4. What the Sims 4 really lacks are wants and fears and memories from the Sims 2 because that gave you a bit of unpredictability while controlling your game
At this point The Sims 4 is nearing its lifespan so I have given up on any constructive improvements for the game. All I can hope for is that The Sims 5 is not another money grubbing scheme by EA with shallow content.
The Whispering Sylph Is it though? I feel like they'll milk it for another 3 years.
The Whispering Sylph EA seems to be dithering whether to prolong The Sims 4 or move on to The Sims 5. At least my toaster laptop can run The Sims 4 64-bit when pared down to about 6-8 packs. Videos of The Sims 5 look so pretty I'm scared that it will be both a money grab with shallow content and unplayable for those of us with toaster laptops.
@@avillegas8857 What video of The Sims 5? There hasn't been official trailer from EA yet.
@@thewhisperingsylph8738 you are correct, there are only fake trailers floating around
O really miss the depth that we had in Sims 2 era. Even being such a simple game, still the most deep experience that i’ve ever had with the sims. I miss The unexpected events, drama and seeing my sims feeling unhappy, even with a large house and fulfilled needs, because of their aspiration meter. I loved the way things you did around the neighborhood in sims 3 affected their reputation and how other sims saw you, even BURGLARS that it was something i used to hate. I totally agree with you.
lol when you mentioned burglars I remembered how when playing Sims 3 a box popped up with a massage that showed that the burglar is attracted to my Sim, I lost my shit seeing that burglars tell you they want to date you while robbing you XD
There's a video somewhere of two people that worked on The Sims 4 talking about how they thought they leaned too hard in the storyteller playstyle and lost appeal to the want to see interesting things happen playstyle. It's not an easy thing to balance. Crusader Kings 2 is a character based game that leans hard to the latter (though you can make characters act contrary to their traits) and NPCs make decisions that would frustrate a lot of storyteller types (Literally have had my heir kill me at which point I my heir/murderer became the player character). I'm picturing someone making self sims of themselves and their boy/girlfriend and then being upset when their SO sim ends up marrying some other sim. And even someone that doesn't want to control everything may have a specific story they want to tell amid the chaos.
I think something like a toggle for how much autonomy npc sims have in the background that still gives a week or so in game to establish a player sim's friendships and romances with other sims before it starts playing matchmaker in the background with player established romances locking down a non-serial romantic/non-non-commital sim from said matchmaking could be a way to balance things instead of going fully one way or the other.
Well said!
I use sooooo many mods! Wicked Whims, Basemental Drugs and Alcohol, SimRealist's Mods, mods from KawaiiStacie and LittleMsSam. It's crazy that we need modders to do what the game devs SHOULD be doing, but with EA calling all the final shots that will never happen.
Yeah look i really want more depth but non of the depth those mods give- i know people dont want to hear it; sims was weird, but always pg.
@@7Nine7 I use them for realism. Wicked Whims is about more than just sex. It has aspects that add to realism. I'd recommend looking into them before knocking them, but only if you're 18+ and if not, to each their own.
Imagine, for a moment:
Traits are overhauled to a sliding scale for Core Attributes: Good and Evil are a slider, that change based on a Sim's actions. A good sim can become evil, and an evil sim can become good. Some attributes can be frozen on your sims, to give them a 'core personality trait' that'll never change (So if you want an irredeemably evil sim? You can!)
Traits that don't change are renamed to Quirks; things a sim just has an innate connection to (EX. Child of the Ocean) that are not personality concepts.
Happy Gol-Lucky That’s a great idea !
They used to have the personality point system in 1 and 2- it could be a bit limiting, but it also gave them more wiggle room to customize things based off personality. I loved the different wedding cake cut interactions you could get, the best being a playful Sim that would enrage their serious spouse by shoving cake on their face
@@merchantfan The good ol' days.
But, if they took the system from Parenthood and expanded that...? Potential, there is.
I didn't play TS3 for long. Reason for that is simply because "not everyone can play The Sims 3" as Plumbella put it.
I remember playing this womanizing Indiana Jones type with a house that had a little indoor bridge over a pool of water and over that was a bookcase, behind it was so many treasures from World Adventures and bars of minerals and metals that were refined and were (I think) 500,000 simoleons in total.
Lo and behold after graduating with honors in university, completing all the puzzles and garnering all the treasures that the game had in store, he had to get a job. His boss was a young adult and, after some weeks, being married to a girl that ran the wine store in France, the littlest of detail that I found out about the game was the story progression. The boss in my sim's career grew to be an elder and had a grandchild. And my little 14 year old mind, that mindlessly torrented The Sims 3 with every single expansion and stuff pack with no regrets, was blown away by that simulation of story progression.
Sounds like you're having fun with The Sims 3 even for a short time
@@moch.farisdzulfiqar6123 Moral of the story. I had a much better time playing 3 than months of 4.
You even can dictate sim's genes, as when you edit them through mirror (for example hair color), they change their genes with this, so when you get ugly kids, you can just change them. You nailed all my feelings about the game.
I think wicked whims has a version for streamers, so that might be worth checking out.
Oooh. Got my attention, Ty becca.
For all you mention I play with ageing disabled. I just make multiple households and try different things , when I move to next one the old sims become some sort of background characters for the new ones to interact.
Honestly I'm going to have to start doing this more
i didnt even realize that this was THE carl when i tapped on this video
i didnt even know u DID videos, dude
When Get To Work came out, my sim got abducted the night before proposing to his GF. He got pregnant and it threw my whole planned life for them for a loop. That baby is still my favorite sim ever. She was unexpected, almost broke up her father and his love's wedding, is from another planet. She's the most interesting sim I've ever had, because it happened without my planning.
I also had a sim I made with questionable traits, whose husband cheated on her and all that. But it's so much pressure to plan out the drama.
About your analogy. It's like trying to enjoy Game of Thrones while you're trying to write it. No thanks.
On thing that can make it a little better is (and I watch lilsimsie do this) is to have a wheel make your decisions. Example you have a sim and there is three choices (cheat on your spouse, move out, go to college) then roll it see what your sim will do
Nothing matters in the sims. You could cheat on someone's Lifelong partner, they won't loose their job or try to come after you, mutual friends won't care.....The sims need a cause and effect system and Deeper AI personalities.
in previous games, i'd get really attached to my sims. i'd want to play their whole family lineages and typically had only a few saves at a time. now, they're all interchangeable. no matter how many different traits i download, or situations they get into, it's like i'm just swapping out the same people with different looks.
I’ve missed Interests since the Sims 2, because that’s how you could start up a relationship rough, if the two of your Sims didn’t share them. Also Turn-Ons and Turn-Offs were appreciated, but would’ve loved to see a stronger effect implemented when doing romantic socials. I also to some degree miss Astrology, because it added a bit of a surprise element to relationships in Sims 2, and Sims 3 after it was patched in.
Honestly I feel like the Sims 4 is just really missing surprises when it comes to the relationship system. Sims are too open, your Sim could be depressed AF and the other mad as heck, but they still get along easily, as if nothing will make the relationship difficult.
"It's like going into Game of Thrones and knowing how everything ends while you're in Season 2."
Maaan that's...yep. That's the exact feeling. The big oof.
I think in the sims 5, they should work on making the outside events more lively, especially since we know how much Maxis love their premade families.
It would be nice to see sims holding hands or talking on the cell phone; Sims actually doing what they're supposed to do.
Making the outside world livelier would be so awesome.
YES well said! Being able to decide how much "difficulty" or chaos would be much appreciated.
I loved sims 3 so much, the open world let me spy on all my neighbors. One tried making waffles and set his stove on fire, he then started eating his burnt waffles and peed his pants while walking to work and crying.
A few weeks later I noticed him walking by smiling all the time, he ended up on top of his career with a ton of money, he also had quite a few ladies from around town showing up at his place at random hours.
So many cool things happening like that in 3 made it great. Too bad it was so poorly optimized.
When Paralives comes out, will you do some guides for that? Carl's Parafolk Guides
I am supporting the game on Patreon, and I expect to be excited to do so. I'm likely to get around to covering it *far far* ahead of its release if I can.
Carl's Sim Guides You are OG.
God I hope Paralives is good. I hope it's EVERYTHING the Sims 4 should have been. I hope he makes so much goddamn money from it, and I hope it basically becomes the Planet Coaster of the Sims.
Carl's Sim Guides like I said before I’d also support if you wanna venture out to other games. Or even go back and play Sims 2 or 3. I think that’d be great esp for the teens that never played anything but Sims 4 and won’t know what kind of amazing gameplay they’re missing. I love your ventures into let’s plays and scripted videos bcs your sarcasm is gold. So some Sims 2 scripted videos for the nostalgia (I can’t play it anymore on my pc) would be *chef’s kiss* in my opinion
This is exactly why I still play Sims 3. I get really bored within minutes of playing Sims 4 and I'm extremely creative! I want there to be drama and unpredictability! I don't want to control every last aspect of it.
I don’t think I’d play The Sims 4 without MCCC and dozen other mods that change my game completely. If The Sims 2 still worked on my computer, I’d be playing it instead.
The Sims may never progress in their jobs without you, but in my experience they do often get fired from their jobs and become food vendors.
I will never be able to play Sims 4 again without MCCC
Before I watch this video I have some thoughts I'd like to share.
I like being able to tell a story, but there are times where I want to feel like I'm part of a story rather than dictating every instance of it, **It's exhausting** and it's not fun. Being able to set the pieces and watch them behave is fun, but not picking who gets involved with who.
Okay, now that I've watched the video I'd like to give some more thoughts. The depth in this game is so shallow that the player has to enforce limitations (Rags to riches, Runaway teen) and I rather enjoy Rags to Riches, as I have to worry about making sure my sim is properly taken care of. if anyone's interested I'll list off the restrictions I play with, and requirements to get to certain stuff. I plan on ending it off with a super sim challenge.
Edit: I forgot one more thing that infuriates me: I usually end up having one friend over at my sim's place 24/7, I never even invite them and they ask to come over, it could be the dead of night and they'd still ask to come over, I'd check their schedule and they're supposed to be 'at work' or something, but it's obviously not the case if you can ask them to come over at any time. The only times I've ever been denied talking to someone on the phone has been teenagers at school, and even then it's a suggestion as I get the 'they're at school' and then moments later see them knocking at my door.
“I’m pretty much a minor god”
Pretty much me playing Sims 3, thanjs to Twallen’s mods, I control the whole damn town without even having to change households. I’m not even exaggerating, as my partner has pointed out to me repeatedly in the past. Lol
But hey, it’s my virtual dollhouse! Of course I also always have full autonomy on (and Twallen’s SP) so sometimes they try to defy me. And sometimes I even let them. ;D
Maybe that is part of my boredom when playing S4, I’m used to having a whole world to play in, not just a single lot at a time.
You’re right, it isn’t really fun to have to keep switching households to really manage the worlds.
I do need to use mods, too many of them, but even then, it’s hard to keep playing for any length of time. I think the problem lies in the fact that S4 was not originally designed to be a sandbox game (like the previous versions) but more of a social/mobile type game. I’m not sure the infrastructure will allow that kind of open-ended play to any real degree.
I did vote for things that would bring depth to gameplay on that survey because somehow, I can’t stop hoping the game will improve.
mariesalias that's why I use nraas story progression. The only thing that really annoys me is when the Sims move house without my permission.. and even when I turn that setting off, the Sims still move. But whatever, I deal
Nikki Nova I haven’t played ts3 for awhile because I can only have either ts3 installed or S4 installed at a time really. But honestly, I think a lot of it is the amount of CC I feel like I need to get S4 to work better/give more gameplay and to get the amazing variety of items I got used to having in ts3. I never got around to reinstalling ts3 after I updated to Win 10 since I have been trying to give S4 a fair shot.
I’m not sure how much longer I can hold out though. I’ve been missing my last legacy family a lot (does that sound weird? Only on gen 8/20 but I got attached. and since I genuinely enjoy watching others play S4 better so I’ll just switch to playing ts3 and just watching people play S4.
It’s funny how EA touted S4 sims as showing more emotion and personality then ts3. My Sims always had plenty of personality and created their own drama without me having to make them!
In my last legacy family, the second gen heir (founders being zero gen) fell in love with the genie his mother had freed and was seeing the family in a nanny/butler position. But spouses had to come from a limited pool so he had to marry someone else. And because we needed to keep the past ghosts around, they kept that romance going for several generations, with him as a ghost.
Eventually I said enough and had her resurrect his ghost (she always wanted to). She cloned herself and when the clone was grown, the clone took her place and the other two moved out. I didn’t play them as I couldn’t but they stayed together and were both happy.
My first gen heir quickly fell out of love with his wife and was rude and mean to her until they died, but she never flagged in her affections for him. She became one of my favorite sims ever as she was constantly doing funny stuff.
My third gen heir and his wife argued constantly and eventually broke up. She gave him hell even as a ghost. Lol
My fourth gen heir married an evil guy (she didn’t know at the time). But he was evil and mean to everyone BUT her. He freaking adored her and would drop everything at anytime to come listen to her play or sing. He was a jerk to their kids, to his in-laws, and everyone else. But never her. I was so surprised by it at the time.
Geez I have to stop or I can go on. Did I mention I missed them? Lol I keep editing and rewriting this just to get carried away again, so I’ll stop while I’m ahead!
Anyway, I agree, Twallen’s SP is a must for me as well, it brings your town alive.
Oh, and I use one of the modules to keep them from changing homes. I wish I could remember, as I also had that problem occasionally until then.
I think... but I could be remembering wrong, that it’s in the family/household menu, to allow the whole family to move or not. Or else it’s in the personal menu for the Sims, that I choose personally whether they can move or not. Maybe both. Honestly, thinking about it, I think it’s in SP/SP module, but It wouldn’t surprise me if it were MC.
Thanks for the memories. S4 is not long for my computer now.
You do a really good job of laying out why this game seems so hollow. I keep feeling like I'm not having as much fun with this version and I can't feel as connected to my sims as easily, but sometimes I wondered if it's just because I'm getting older or I'm bored with the genre from playing these games for so long, but seeing this makes it seem clear that the problem is with the design. I hope they do flesh out the traits (I definitely voted for it!), but in the meantime, PolarBearSims at modthesims.info has some autonomy mods that help improve some of these things, especially their "Have Some Personality Please!" and "Autonomous Proposals" mods.
Aster Lea I was feeling that way too about the sims, questioning if I've just outgrown simulation games. But I've hopped backwards to the Sims 2 recently and have totally rediscovered my obsession for simming lol
@@galaxysnot6276 I tried that, but it stopped working on my computer. :(
Aster Lea Aw, that sucks. I hear that a lot of PC users can run into tricky issues sometimes when running it on newer computers.
Remember when The Sims was a strategy game? HAHAHA
YES
wait what was that like? i grew up watching my older sister play the sims 3. i’m old enough to play now and i’ve only played sims 4.
No
Yep, the game needs to have a setting for more sim autonomy. I miss the days of sims starting relationships, having kids, cheating on their spouses, etc. while I was at another household. It added an element of surprise to the game that you just can't get in the Sims 4.
I've felt for years that Sims 4 should have more of a mix of the best things from Sims 2 and Sims 3, plus the cool and unique stuff they added in this one. They both had character, but Sims 4 sometimes feels like a gutted version of the previous games. It just feels hollow a lot of the times, and it shouldn't be up to players and modders to fill that void. But I still come back to it because I'm such a die hard Sims fan.
I was so averse to SIms 4 initially because of the lack of Story Progression. I still miss it. I used twallan's story prog mod for sims 3 and I loved when families would move in together grow etc. Made it feel really neighborly.
I use WickedWhims for the Attractedness traits/skills. Brings a lot more fun depth into the game. It also gives two types of personalities per sim. :D
And it also makes the NPC's make babies with each other randomly!
I have never got to touch it. My friends are wild about it, so I'm in for a treat, aren't I.
@Carl's Sims Guides Oh yes. My first time using it, I had multiple sims just randomly boinking each other at the library. I would advise customizing the settings to your preference right away.
It's pretty crazy when you're at a park and some random sims are woohooing in the library
@@strangehooman3972 when I had WW installed I moved to Sulani and rando's would be doing it in my house :/ I ended up uninstalling WW since I don't play Sims 4 anymore and went back to Sims 3.
Yeah, the random bonking is amusing the first time it happens (especially if it's at your house) but it gets creepy very fast, as do peeping toms. I turned off autonomy and peeping toms entirely and just use the mod for the more realistic game mechanics it provides in its other features.
Remember back in sims 2 and 3 when the world actually progressed? When some could learn? Fail and succeed? Fall in love and break apart
In sims 4, its bascially whatever emotion is taking charge
Sure mods like wicked whims chemistry help with love progression but overall the game lacks any story depth
I really miss the chemistry system from TS2. How many times it destroyed my matchmaking plans, I can't even count... and I love it!
I get tired of the same townies all the time, whenever I start a new save so what I did was make 2 base save files with mccc. Both are different. I just save as from there. Bye bella goth
This video is the whole reason I'll never be able to play the sims 4 without MCCC ever again. I never played the sims 3 but I feel that the story progression I keep hearing about is deeply needed in the sims 4. Another thing that bothers me is that even with MCCC, if some townies have a baby, they don't give the baby an appropriate bed when it ages up. I had my active sim visit their friend's (NPC) house and saw that they only had a child and toddler bed for their kids that were now both teenagers. Where do they sleep 😂😂 I feel like this may be more complicated to code than relationship based story progression, but it does still take me out of it a little. Also, I would definitely be interested to see you talk more in depth about mods like MCCC and wicked whims. I've been hesitant to use WW in my game bc im not always in the mood for sim porn but I didn't realize til recently that you can turn off the more explicit parts of the mod and just use the "attractiveness" feature. Definitely intriguing to me. I was glad to see that they asked us about some of these features in the recent survey and I hope they are considering releasing a 20th anniversary free patch with some of these new features. Don't have the highest of expectations but a girl can dream lol
TL;DR story progression, please I would like it
Sims 3 I tried really hard to make my sims son and neighbor daughter have cute teen relationship only got him to suddenly have the hots for sim mom
That NEVER happens in 4
Something similar happened to me, I was trying to get my son together with a babysitter girl and then one day he had the hots for a dude at school and the dude asked him on a date. I was just like "Oh! My bad son" 😂😂 It was the best thing ever
with MCCC and Wicked Whims, I can start a game, get some things set-up, and then basically watch it like a soap opera with very little , if any at all, interaction on my part. I've literally just watched my sims game (Both 3 and 4) plod along watching all kind of humor, drama and craziness, without ever interacting at all. So it can be done. Ya can watch it like a soap opera and how it progresses over time without your input. It can be a neat save to play. (Or shall i say, watch)..lol Sims 3 is more fun where this is concerned, but Sims 4 With MCCC and WWhims, can come close to the level of story progression as Sims 3,. but you have to have those 2 mods and spend a little time going through the settings.
"What mods do you use to overcome these issues?"
It's called The Sims 3 you should try it sometime
Nah tho in all seriousness, I remember feeling so disappointed when I got Sims 4 when it first came out, the graphics were beautiful but everything else felt empty and flat. I gave it a break of a few years, and I just recently came back thinking some DLC would spice it up now that it's had some time to get DLC to the tune of Sims 3's diverse spread, but no, even with DLC it feels as flat as ever. It's so disappointing because I remember having high hopes, especially about the emotions and moods system, and I was so disappointed to find that moods were almost _more_ flat than they were in Sims 3 and previous, as you could easily influence them to be whatever you wanted. Need inspiration for my bestselling novel? Take a thoughtful shower, browse Simpedia, and enable an emotional aura or two and I can write the whole thing in one sitting without issue. That's not even close to how it works in real life, or how a similar task would work in previous games.
I'm going back to Sims 3, and this time I'm not coming back to 4. It feels like a step down, like a Sims 1.5 or something. Really, really sad.
Try TS3 with Zebru Ultimate Careers and rabbit hole doors and rugs. That way you have active careers and can design every building that is normally a rabbit hole. Combine that with stuff like the story progression and you will never even be tempted to switch back.
I went back on TS2. TS3 is just too laggy
This video is exactly my biggest issue with Sims 4. I hate that I ALWAYS have to decide my Sims future. I was playing Sims 3 the other day and so many unexpected things happen, sometimes I plan toddler's futures and when they're teens they already want completely different things. I really miss that
It’s as if they tried to advance the interactions and emotions of Sims with Sim 4, but actually made it even MORE awkward than the previous games lol
My dream sims is the combination of sims 3 and 4. I loved when you could give your sim something to do and come back to have it done, now they just stop and it restarts. The last update seems to have broken a few things. I started the acting career and when they went to get things done it finished and then all of sudden it wasn't. The more we get the more goes wrong. I love this game and always hope it will be repaired once and for all. Thank you Carl for your shares and info videos.
I agree a hundred percent -- I want my sims to have more realistic desires and wants I can help them towards. I made a bunch of random sims and watched them for awhile and they were all the pretty much the same.
It's small, but I remember (I think it was Sims 2) a feature where Sims had "turn-ons", like being attracted to certain hair colors, certain body types, or having a penchant for formal wear. I really miss that, where characters felt really personal and gave a layer of practical fun to some of the outfit selections.
I'd also love to see more careers like the Get to Work ones; some of the more engaging elements, in my opinion, are those careers. Even if working from home is a convenient touch, it still doesn't capture that certain something that Get to Work careers add
all this reminds me of the story progression mod for sims 3 by Nrass
I think a good solution for the relationships feeling like they move too quickly could be implementing something like we had in the Sims 2, I think it was called like Daily VS Lifetime relationship value? I remember having sims with max daily value getting rejected for things like hugs b/c even though they were getting on great in the moment, the Lifetime value was comparatively low.
Please bring back turn on and turn off from sims 2 it's fun and bring back the star sign and the favourite food colour and music. Also good and bad memories I feel like sims 4 is a bit boring and too realistic to my liking! I do want more randomness factors like they use to back to sims 2-3
Most of these issues aren't in sims 2 which makes no since ...
Try out Meaningful Stories by roBurky. It doesn't make Sims active, but they react much better and don't have crazy mood swings anymore.
Also check out Improved Relationships by Zero for more believable reactions to cheating or boredom in a relationship etc.
LittleMsSam's has a mod named Preferences Custom Lot Trait which makes sims more likely to do certain stuff on a particular lot, like partying or being creative. She also has a Dating App Mod for blind dates, one night stands and chances of pregnancy.
And if you don't want to use WhickedWims just for the attraction system, maybe try out Pancake's Chemistry System Mod where you can at least customize what traits your sim likes or doesn't like in a partner.
MC Command Center is pretty much a given, if you want to have any story progression outside your own household, or Polarbear's autonomous mods about proposals, asking to move in etc.
I hope this is the next game pack or expansion. I totally agree, being God is fun for an hour or two, but then it just becomes a game of fast forward until I can control them. Ironically I feel less connected with them because they do what I say, not more connected.
Sims 2 was pure chaos.
And I loved it.
You speak from my soul.
I would love it if Sims could choose how many children they want, like a tag or something.
I’ve only had two organic moments where something happened that really surprised/upset me in the game story-wise (upset in a good way):
1. I was doing a 100 baby challenge file and one of the teens that was the guy’s first child died randomly from extreme anger. I didn’t see it coming at all.
2. A sim’s mother passed away and was brought back in time to attend her daughter’s wedding, right before Christmas. She died again AT THE WEDDING.
I abandoned Sims 4 and started playing Sims 3 again after tweaking the .ini files so it didn't lag (I highly recommend looking up how), and wow does Sims 4 suck in comparison. The Sims 3 attraction system has lead to some of my favourite couples, and the wants are actually meaningful, like changing careers or working towards the sim's lifetime wish. The game actively works to drive gameplay and help form stories. The Sims 4 feels like a huge step backwards in depth and gameplay.