Basic and Advanced Population Options - Population Limit, Story Progression, Aging, Supernaturals

Dear EA/Maxis/Simgurus/developers (whoever I should address on this issue),

Over the past few weeks, I spent quite some time on the forums. What I’ve noticed is that a lot of players are dissatisfied with the options currently at our disposal to control the population in the Sims 4. Since the key words describing the Sims 4 are: ‘Create, Control, Rule’, players should have more tools at their disposal for those last two.

I know that there are Mods for many of these options, but, aside from some players not wanting to use mods – myself included, there shouldn’t have to be. However, the fact that these mods exist means that these options can be created. Also, given that the game is less than a year old and some of these mods have been around for quite some time, these options can be added to the game in the near future (within months).

In an effort to be constructive, I have made a list of (advanced) population options that I’d like to see in the Sims 4. I know that all of these issues have been mentioned before (separately) but I haven’t found any thread that combines them. (As it is not easy to find such specific info on the forums, I may have missed something though) The ideas I offer here I have thought out myself, but that’s no guarantee someone else hasn’t thought of/mentioned it before. I have already shared this in FusionFang7's thread on ideas to fix TS4, but since not all details could be added there, I decided to share it in a separate thread.

1. Population Limit
Probably the most pressing issue, given that I see several new threads about disappearing Sims appear on the forums each day, after some unknowing player encountered a culling catastrophe.
Options:

• Allow variable population limits, with a preferred setting based on performance. This includes an unlimited population. Add performance warnings if necessary.
  
• Add the option to turn on/off the game generating new Sims, give a warning when the population number is low. This way players can prevent their towns from overflowing and it also allows players to add Sims they like. It would also be nice to be able to add households straight from the Gallery into the unplayed Sims section.
  
• Add a special tab for ‘service’ NPCs, besides the tabs for played and unplayed Sims. So where you can find the mailmen/women, maids, repairmen, etc. Also barkeepers, caterers – these should be given a default skill level of no lower than 6 for their work related skill(s). For OR it would be the rangers and the hermit, for GTW the co-workers (patients, suspects and aliens should be regular townies), for SD it would be the Yoga instructors and spa employees. There should be a set number of any of these Sims (with minimums/maximums, the absolute minimum for all service NPCs being one mailman/woman), allowing the game to generate new ones only when a Sim retires or dies, which can be set to happen autonomously or with player interference. Players should be able to fire/retire a Sim they no longer think fit for the job. Also, the option should be available to appoint an existing non-service NPC for the task. There should be an advanced option to turn off the game generating service NPCs, this will result in a prompt to choose at least one of each, in a fashion similar to choosing heroes in Sims Medieval. Retired service NPCs should be moved to the unplayed tab. In case of GTW this will also prevent our Sims from having new co-workers every day.
  
• Add the option to auto-clear dead not-in-world Sims. Also a button to manually clear dead Sims (played and unplayed – in case the auto-clear is unchecked) that aren’t playable ghosts. Once removed, dead Sims’ images/info should not disappear from family trees.
  
• Display the current population number in manage households, including the number of dead (non-)ghost Sims that have not been cleared (with a separate count indicating how many of the population are dead). It would also be very helpful if ghost Sims would appear in manage households, so players can remove them manually and opt to keep some of them.
  

2. Supernatural
The supernatural options are great, but some players prefer realistic worlds, they should be given the possibility to opt out of these features. The others should not be subject to the randomness of the game and should be given options for more control.
Options:

• Add an on/off switch for ghosts and aliens and whenever any new supernatural is added, one for them too.
  
• Advanced options for aliens:
  
  
  
  • Adjustable abduction frequency (zero, low, medium, high, extreme)
    
  • Adjustable post-abduction-pregnancy frequency (never, low, medium, high, always) and an option to enable female Sims to become pregnant after abduction.
    
  • On/off switch for male pregnancy, with a ‘male aliens only’ option (meaning male aliens can get pregnant, but male Sims can’t).
    
  
  

3. Aging
Although I am not unhappy about the current aging options, there’s room for improvement.
Options:

• Add a life span between ‘normal’ and ‘long’, the difference is too big and ‘long’ feels almost like an eternity.
  
• Add age sliders like in TS3, allowing players to customise each life stage according to their own desires.
  
• The ‘adult’ stage is currently too short in comparison to the other life stages, it would be more realistic if in the default setting it would be(approximately) twice as long as it is now.
  

4. Story progression
A lot of players really miss this feature. It is now possible to do some of it manually but it takes a lot of time. Also a lot of Simmers (who play rotationally) are annoyed by the fact that their Sims engage in romantic relationships without their permission. With the adding of this feature with options players will be able to play Sims 3 style or Sims 2 style, or invent their own Sims 4 style!
Options:

• Story progression should come with an on/off switch.
  
• The ability to turn it off for selected households. Which includes (un)checking story progression for played households. But it would be nice to also turn it off for some unplayed households, so players are able to meddle with those Sims exactly as they want, or keep them ‘safe’ in case they intend to use that Sim in the future.
  
• Add an option to allow/prevent the forming of romantic relationships. On/off for all Sims and when switched on, an option to except played Sims. The ‘selected households’ feature could also be added here.
  
• Add an on/off switch for assigning jobs, here again with the possibility to except played Sims and the ‘selected households’.
  

5.Allowing a player to start a blank neighbourhood
where they don’t have to make a Sim at the start and all Sims and houses can be deleted with a single click (this option should only be available on starting a ‘blank’ save). This is especially useful for builders or players that want to create their own neighbourhood and all the Sims that live in it.


All options should be adjustable for each save game and adjustable at will, except in cases of (possible) life changing events, e.g. when a Sim is giving birth, when a Sim is dying or when there’s a fire. On starting a new save from the menu (not when using ‘save as...’) the player should be prompted to choose their preferred settings before starting to play. Also, the settings chosen for the first save should become the default settings for that player, so they don’t have to make the changes for every new game. Whenever new content is added that affects population (something along the lines of adding a new type of supernatural or a large influx of new service NPCs) the first time a save is loaded the player will get a screen prompting them to choose their preferred settings or to accept the default settings.

To sum it up: More Options, more Power

All I feel I should add at this point is a massive PLEASE