Adoption System Overhaul Ideas
Hi there! I just thought of some ideas that I had for upgrading the adoption process in-game and I'd like to share them to see if anyone agrees with me or has any other ideas they'd like to bring up.
To me, the adoption process seems very lackluster in the Sims 4. You just hop on the computer, click adopt, pick a child you'd like based on name and appearance and as long as you have enough simoleons, that's that. The child comes to your home and is yours that easily.
Here are my ideas to upgrade the process and system. Have the UI show little descriptions of each child's backstory or some interesting information about them (traits and likes and dislikes would be perfect). This could look similar to the odd jobs UI from Island Living, but the job descriptions would be replaced with their stories and info. Traits being shown before choosing to adopt cats and dogs if you have that pack would also be great. I want to know if my sim is about to adopt a friendly and loyal pet or a mischievous and aggressive one, and what exactly I'm getting my sims into if I don't make the pet myself in CAS.
Next, I'd love if there could be a sort of application process for adoption or some sort of requirement system for the adoptive family or sim. For instance, a sim could go on the computer and autonomously fill out an adoption application and send it in before they would even be remotely eligible to adopt. Afterward, they could get accepted or denied the ability to adopt or only be able to adopt certain children based on their needs. Some of the requirements could be a certain amount of household funds at the time of sending in the application, at least one adult sim with good performance in a job in the household (they'd get declined however if they had the criminal job), they have at least 2 bedrooms on their lot (which is able to specified in build mode), and the adoptive sim or parents may not have the hates children, evil, or mean trait.
Furthermore, it'd be interesting if throughout the child's lifespan until they become a teenager, there could be check-ups from social services (either via a letter in the mail or a social services sim coming to the house/apartment). If it was a letter, a sim in the household would have to respond to it within 24-48 hours via the mailbox (similar to bill paying) and it'd be like a check-up on the household to see if it's still stable enough to properly care for an adopted child. If an actual social services sim shows up at the house, a sim in the household would just have to use an interaction to talk to the sim and the check-up would be completed that way. If everything was found to be in ship shape, then the letter or in-person check-up would be confirmed with a good game notification. If things were not found to be in good shape anymore, the family would have a certain amount of time (I'm not sure how long though) to get things back on track for the child, or they'd get taken away (shown via a game notification). It would also probably be good if this feature could be turned on and off via the game settings, however (this could also go for all of the features I'm mentioning as well) because I can see simmers wanting to create certain dramatic storylines where their sims are eligible to adopt, they adopt a child, and then things go horribly wrong, but they don't want the child automatically taken away for storyline purposes. I do think that this feature is important though because if something goes wrong where the child cannot properly be taken care of anymore, social services have to step in. There is no system like that in-game except for the babies and toddlers getting taken away if they aren't fed, never to be seen again. Keeping that in mind, if the adoption system was overhauled, when/if children get taken away, they should be transferred to another household somewhere so they aren't just gone into the abyss.
Lastly, there should be an option for mothers to give up their babies for adoption when they're born (and they'd be transferred to another existing household so they could still see the child grow up from afar). There are so many real-life stories where mothers have to or want to give up a baby and I feel like that would be an interesting story feature to add to the game. Of course, you could manually do it yourself by transferring just the baby to another household via the manage households tool, but sometimes some players may not want to put in all that work.
Well, I know that this was rather long, and I appreciate it very much if you've read the whole thing. If you feel compelled, I'd love to hear your thoughts about my ideas and any other ideas you might want to add to this. Thank you, and have a lovely day!
To me, the adoption process seems very lackluster in the Sims 4. You just hop on the computer, click adopt, pick a child you'd like based on name and appearance and as long as you have enough simoleons, that's that. The child comes to your home and is yours that easily.
Here are my ideas to upgrade the process and system. Have the UI show little descriptions of each child's backstory or some interesting information about them (traits and likes and dislikes would be perfect). This could look similar to the odd jobs UI from Island Living, but the job descriptions would be replaced with their stories and info. Traits being shown before choosing to adopt cats and dogs if you have that pack would also be great. I want to know if my sim is about to adopt a friendly and loyal pet or a mischievous and aggressive one, and what exactly I'm getting my sims into if I don't make the pet myself in CAS.
Next, I'd love if there could be a sort of application process for adoption or some sort of requirement system for the adoptive family or sim. For instance, a sim could go on the computer and autonomously fill out an adoption application and send it in before they would even be remotely eligible to adopt. Afterward, they could get accepted or denied the ability to adopt or only be able to adopt certain children based on their needs. Some of the requirements could be a certain amount of household funds at the time of sending in the application, at least one adult sim with good performance in a job in the household (they'd get declined however if they had the criminal job), they have at least 2 bedrooms on their lot (which is able to specified in build mode), and the adoptive sim or parents may not have the hates children, evil, or mean trait.
Furthermore, it'd be interesting if throughout the child's lifespan until they become a teenager, there could be check-ups from social services (either via a letter in the mail or a social services sim coming to the house/apartment). If it was a letter, a sim in the household would have to respond to it within 24-48 hours via the mailbox (similar to bill paying) and it'd be like a check-up on the household to see if it's still stable enough to properly care for an adopted child. If an actual social services sim shows up at the house, a sim in the household would just have to use an interaction to talk to the sim and the check-up would be completed that way. If everything was found to be in ship shape, then the letter or in-person check-up would be confirmed with a good game notification. If things were not found to be in good shape anymore, the family would have a certain amount of time (I'm not sure how long though) to get things back on track for the child, or they'd get taken away (shown via a game notification). It would also probably be good if this feature could be turned on and off via the game settings, however (this could also go for all of the features I'm mentioning as well) because I can see simmers wanting to create certain dramatic storylines where their sims are eligible to adopt, they adopt a child, and then things go horribly wrong, but they don't want the child automatically taken away for storyline purposes. I do think that this feature is important though because if something goes wrong where the child cannot properly be taken care of anymore, social services have to step in. There is no system like that in-game except for the babies and toddlers getting taken away if they aren't fed, never to be seen again. Keeping that in mind, if the adoption system was overhauled, when/if children get taken away, they should be transferred to another household somewhere so they aren't just gone into the abyss.
Lastly, there should be an option for mothers to give up their babies for adoption when they're born (and they'd be transferred to another existing household so they could still see the child grow up from afar). There are so many real-life stories where mothers have to or want to give up a baby and I feel like that would be an interesting story feature to add to the game. Of course, you could manually do it yourself by transferring just the baby to another household via the manage households tool, but sometimes some players may not want to put in all that work.
Well, I know that this was rather long, and I appreciate it very much if you've read the whole thing. If you feel compelled, I'd love to hear your thoughts about my ideas and any other ideas you might want to add to this. Thank you, and have a lovely day!
