A "Satisfaction State" working along the wants and fears
Similar to the Sims 2 aspiration gauge, I think there could be a "satisfaction state" of some sort in The Sims 4. The goal here is to give the player some incentive to complete their Sim Wants. Of course, there would be an option to toggle it on/off for players who don't want it in their game.
The core mechanic of this feature is to have a new gauge that would slowly decay over time and each time you get a new Fear and fill up each time you complete a Want.
There would be 5 Satisfaction levels tied to the gauge : extremely satisfied, very satisfied, neutral, very dissatisfied, completely dissatisfied.
These Satisfaction levels give different inertia to the moodlets your Sim receives.
If the gauge is in the "satisfied" part, it gives a small buff to the positive moodlets. Meaning, a sim with a "neutral" satisfaction state would get a +1 happy moodlet from an event, whereas a sim in the "very satisfied" satisfaction state would get a +2 happy moodlet from the same event. Conversely, getting negative moodlets when in a dissatisfied Satisfaction State would make those negative moodlets stronger.
See this as something separate from your Sim's emotional state. There are some days when you feel like you can achieve about anything, and then boom, something happens that gets you angry, BUT the inertia from feeling so successful made it so that the inconvenience didn't get to you too much. Conversely, there are some days where you feel so down that even the smallest inconvenience can get you to feel like you want to bury yourself in your blanket for the next 7 days.
A sim who's been in an "extremely satisfied" satisfaction state for more than 2 sims days would get a strong happy moodlet that would last until its satisfaction drops to neutral or worse.
A sim who's been in an "extremely dissatisfied" satisfaction state for more than 2 sims days would get a strong sad moodlet that would last until its satisfaction drops to neutral or better.
There could be some other advantages, such as quicker skill learning when extremely satisfied, harder to get along with other sims when extremely dissatisfied...
What do you think?
The core mechanic of this feature is to have a new gauge that would slowly decay over time and each time you get a new Fear and fill up each time you complete a Want.
There would be 5 Satisfaction levels tied to the gauge : extremely satisfied, very satisfied, neutral, very dissatisfied, completely dissatisfied.
These Satisfaction levels give different inertia to the moodlets your Sim receives.
If the gauge is in the "satisfied" part, it gives a small buff to the positive moodlets. Meaning, a sim with a "neutral" satisfaction state would get a +1 happy moodlet from an event, whereas a sim in the "very satisfied" satisfaction state would get a +2 happy moodlet from the same event. Conversely, getting negative moodlets when in a dissatisfied Satisfaction State would make those negative moodlets stronger.
See this as something separate from your Sim's emotional state. There are some days when you feel like you can achieve about anything, and then boom, something happens that gets you angry, BUT the inertia from feeling so successful made it so that the inconvenience didn't get to you too much. Conversely, there are some days where you feel so down that even the smallest inconvenience can get you to feel like you want to bury yourself in your blanket for the next 7 days.
A sim who's been in an "extremely satisfied" satisfaction state for more than 2 sims days would get a strong happy moodlet that would last until its satisfaction drops to neutral or worse.
A sim who's been in an "extremely dissatisfied" satisfaction state for more than 2 sims days would get a strong sad moodlet that would last until its satisfaction drops to neutral or better.
There could be some other advantages, such as quicker skill learning when extremely satisfied, harder to get along with other sims when extremely dissatisfied...
What do you think?
