Emotion Sliders- emotion overhaul idea
Right now, we have a few traits that directly affect a sim's emotional state, but those moodlets are often drowned out by happy moodlets and you have to sacrifice one of the precious few trait slots to use one of those traits. Plus, once a sim has that trait, it's there for life unless you cheat. I want to make something more dynamic that allows for much more variation between different sims. A sim's emotional state tends to be much more noticeable than their traits, so I want to use that.
I propose a slider system with five points for how often and how strongly a sim experiences every emotion (except for fine, which will stay as the default state, and Possessed for story reasons):
Never, Rarely, Normal, Often, Always
Never: No matter what, this sim will NOT feel this emotion. If they get a moodlet that would normally boost this emotion, it will boost another emotion instead, be totally neutral and there for looks (to show that the sim is processing what happened, but they just don't feel anything about it), or not appear in the first place. Gameplay-wise, it would take a lot of work to get a sim to the point where they never feel a certain emotion.
It's possible, though very difficult through gameplay alone, to have a sim that doesn't experience any emotions at all. Sims with "Never" on every single emotion still get cosmetic moodlets, but they're mostly there to show that the sim is noticing their surroundings even though they don't feel anything about it.
Rarely: The sim will still get moodlets related to this emotion and can even feel that way from time to time, but they won't get these moodlets as often as sims on "normal" do, and the moodlets are usually weaker, impacting the mood less.
Normal: A baseline where the emotions have about the same frequency they do currently (or the same frequency any future balancing changes bring about). This is the default and most common level.
Often: A sim will get moodlets related to this emotion more often than sims on normal, and they'll tend to be stronger. Unless all of the other sliders are set to "never", they will still be able to feel other emotions.
Always: A sim will only ever feel this one emotion. If one of a sim's emotions is set to always, all of the others will be set to "never". This sim will still get moodlets, but they will only serve to boost the existing emotion if they do anything at all. It's very, very difficult to get a mono-mood sim through normal gameplay.
This would have its own menu in both Live Mode and CAS
CAS
Under normal circumstances, the CAS emotion slider menu is hidden. Sims coming out of CAS will generally have all of the sliders set to "normal". The exception is if the player chooses to sacrifice one or more trait slots to use traits that relate to a specific emotion: fresh out of CAS, a gloomy sim will automatically have their sadness slider set to Often while a lazy sim will have their energized slider set to Rarely.
If the player wants, though, they can use fulleditmode to un-hide the menu and customize the sliders to their heart's content. Being able to change the sliders at will when creating a sim could be used in a very cheaty way, so it's hidden behind a cheat. I feel it should be an option, though, because there's also a lot of potential to make a balanced sim (Yes, he's a very confident person, but he also gets angry really easily) or a challenging and fun sim that has a bunch of negative moods and not a lot of positive ones.
Live Mode:
In the menu, you can see what levels on the slider your sim is at and how much more effort it might take for them to reach another level. You can't directly edit them from here, though.
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Changing the Sliders through Gameplay
Sure, you can give your sim a certain attitude and stick with that. You have the option and get some gameplay by having your sim embrace the sorts of emotions they feel. Your confident sim can give pep talks meant to inspire confidence in others, or your sadsack sim might try to bring others down too (autonomously or otherwise). But think of the stories you can tell, of sims overcoming anger issues or finding happiness even after all the embarrassment they've endured. You could also go the other way, with well-adjusted sims becoming miserable because of misfortune or mistakes. Both can make for some compelling stories.
So how do you change your sim's outlook on life? They can read certain books, browse certain websites, interact with sims that act like how they want to be, and perhaps more. Your sim can also gain or lose points on the scale between slider levels through their ordinary life.
For example, let's say your sim has a mischievous friend who invites her to a fake party: your sim is going to lose some confidence. It also works the other way around: your interactions with other sims can have long-term consequences on their outlook on life, which in turn can affect your relationship with them.
There is another feature that can effect how quickly or slowly you lose or gain points: the "embrace the way you are" and "try to change" options. Both of these have consequences, though.
There are two ways to access these: you can self-click a sim, or you can interact with another sim and "promise to change" or "promise not to change". In either case, you select a particular level on an emotion of your choice as a goal. Do you want your sim to be more normal instead of easily dazed? Do you want your sim to promise never to be happy again? It's your decision.
You can use "promise to change" with significant others (spouse, boyfriend, fiancee, etc.) and relatives that you have a relationship lower than "friends" with, and any other sims that you have a negative relationship with. If your sim works towards their goal while the person they promised is in the room, they will get small relationship gains. When the goal is complete, there will be a much larger relationship gain, proportional to how big the change your sim promised to make was. On the other hand, if your sim fails and goes in the other direction, or gives up on changing (either from self-selecting or directly telling the sim they promised in the first place), there will be a negative relationship gain. If your sim does an interaction that goes against their attempt to change while the person they promised is in the room, they will have small negative relationship point gains. This only applies to things your sim actively does- gaining sadness or anger because a relative died won't count against you, for example.
"Promise not to change" is a bit different. You can use it on any sim that your sim is at least friends with for positive relationship gains, but you can also use it to taunt sims you don't get along with, resulting in negative relationship gains. When your sim is promising not to change, they will get extra positive (for friends+) or negative (for enemies) relationship gains when they use interactions related to their chosen emotion level. For example, if a sim is embracing being energized and promises his boyfriend that he won't change, doing hip-bumps with his boyfriend will result in extra positive relationship points. If your sim does end up changing the embraced emotion or giving up, sims who are friends+ will lose relationship points while enemies will gain them.
Whether your sim made the promise for themself or to someone else, there are some benefits to both options. If you choose to try and change, you'll accrue or lose points for level changes faster. Sims who have some success in trying to change unlock options that makes changing any emotion easier. Sims who try to stay the same won't gain or lose as many points. Sims who manage to stay the same unlock options that allow them to influence others to be more like them
____
Traits
Traits, besides determining what CAS sims start with, make it easier for a sim to move in one direction and harder for them to move in the other. A Gloomy sim is going to have an easier time going from "Normal" sadness to "Often" than vice versa.
____
Townies
So far, I've only talked about playables. Townies and NPCs would also have their own dynamic emotions, randomized at their creation to make things more interesting and then influenced by their interactions with other sims.
The randomization would need to be weighted. "Normal" should be the most common option for the emotions, with "Often" and "Rarely" the next most common. "Never" should be uncommon. Sims with any "Always" should be extremely rare, because while a sim that only feels one emotion can be amusing, sims with varied emotions are far more interesting and so should make up the majority.
Townies can also be trying to change or embracing their emotion, and will autonomously act accordingly. They're usually not doing either, though.
___
What do you think? Does it sound fun?
I propose a slider system with five points for how often and how strongly a sim experiences every emotion (except for fine, which will stay as the default state, and Possessed for story reasons):
Never, Rarely, Normal, Often, Always
Never: No matter what, this sim will NOT feel this emotion. If they get a moodlet that would normally boost this emotion, it will boost another emotion instead, be totally neutral and there for looks (to show that the sim is processing what happened, but they just don't feel anything about it), or not appear in the first place. Gameplay-wise, it would take a lot of work to get a sim to the point where they never feel a certain emotion.
It's possible, though very difficult through gameplay alone, to have a sim that doesn't experience any emotions at all. Sims with "Never" on every single emotion still get cosmetic moodlets, but they're mostly there to show that the sim is noticing their surroundings even though they don't feel anything about it.
Rarely: The sim will still get moodlets related to this emotion and can even feel that way from time to time, but they won't get these moodlets as often as sims on "normal" do, and the moodlets are usually weaker, impacting the mood less.
Normal: A baseline where the emotions have about the same frequency they do currently (or the same frequency any future balancing changes bring about). This is the default and most common level.
Often: A sim will get moodlets related to this emotion more often than sims on normal, and they'll tend to be stronger. Unless all of the other sliders are set to "never", they will still be able to feel other emotions.
Always: A sim will only ever feel this one emotion. If one of a sim's emotions is set to always, all of the others will be set to "never". This sim will still get moodlets, but they will only serve to boost the existing emotion if they do anything at all. It's very, very difficult to get a mono-mood sim through normal gameplay.
This would have its own menu in both Live Mode and CAS
CAS
Under normal circumstances, the CAS emotion slider menu is hidden. Sims coming out of CAS will generally have all of the sliders set to "normal". The exception is if the player chooses to sacrifice one or more trait slots to use traits that relate to a specific emotion: fresh out of CAS, a gloomy sim will automatically have their sadness slider set to Often while a lazy sim will have their energized slider set to Rarely.
If the player wants, though, they can use fulleditmode to un-hide the menu and customize the sliders to their heart's content. Being able to change the sliders at will when creating a sim could be used in a very cheaty way, so it's hidden behind a cheat. I feel it should be an option, though, because there's also a lot of potential to make a balanced sim (Yes, he's a very confident person, but he also gets angry really easily) or a challenging and fun sim that has a bunch of negative moods and not a lot of positive ones.
Live Mode:
In the menu, you can see what levels on the slider your sim is at and how much more effort it might take for them to reach another level. You can't directly edit them from here, though.
____
Changing the Sliders through Gameplay
Sure, you can give your sim a certain attitude and stick with that. You have the option and get some gameplay by having your sim embrace the sorts of emotions they feel. Your confident sim can give pep talks meant to inspire confidence in others, or your sadsack sim might try to bring others down too (autonomously or otherwise). But think of the stories you can tell, of sims overcoming anger issues or finding happiness even after all the embarrassment they've endured. You could also go the other way, with well-adjusted sims becoming miserable because of misfortune or mistakes. Both can make for some compelling stories.
So how do you change your sim's outlook on life? They can read certain books, browse certain websites, interact with sims that act like how they want to be, and perhaps more. Your sim can also gain or lose points on the scale between slider levels through their ordinary life.
For example, let's say your sim has a mischievous friend who invites her to a fake party: your sim is going to lose some confidence. It also works the other way around: your interactions with other sims can have long-term consequences on their outlook on life, which in turn can affect your relationship with them.
There is another feature that can effect how quickly or slowly you lose or gain points: the "embrace the way you are" and "try to change" options. Both of these have consequences, though.
There are two ways to access these: you can self-click a sim, or you can interact with another sim and "promise to change" or "promise not to change". In either case, you select a particular level on an emotion of your choice as a goal. Do you want your sim to be more normal instead of easily dazed? Do you want your sim to promise never to be happy again? It's your decision.
You can use "promise to change" with significant others (spouse, boyfriend, fiancee, etc.) and relatives that you have a relationship lower than "friends" with, and any other sims that you have a negative relationship with. If your sim works towards their goal while the person they promised is in the room, they will get small relationship gains. When the goal is complete, there will be a much larger relationship gain, proportional to how big the change your sim promised to make was. On the other hand, if your sim fails and goes in the other direction, or gives up on changing (either from self-selecting or directly telling the sim they promised in the first place), there will be a negative relationship gain. If your sim does an interaction that goes against their attempt to change while the person they promised is in the room, they will have small negative relationship point gains. This only applies to things your sim actively does- gaining sadness or anger because a relative died won't count against you, for example.
"Promise not to change" is a bit different. You can use it on any sim that your sim is at least friends with for positive relationship gains, but you can also use it to taunt sims you don't get along with, resulting in negative relationship gains. When your sim is promising not to change, they will get extra positive (for friends+) or negative (for enemies) relationship gains when they use interactions related to their chosen emotion level. For example, if a sim is embracing being energized and promises his boyfriend that he won't change, doing hip-bumps with his boyfriend will result in extra positive relationship points. If your sim does end up changing the embraced emotion or giving up, sims who are friends+ will lose relationship points while enemies will gain them.
Whether your sim made the promise for themself or to someone else, there are some benefits to both options. If you choose to try and change, you'll accrue or lose points for level changes faster. Sims who have some success in trying to change unlock options that makes changing any emotion easier. Sims who try to stay the same won't gain or lose as many points. Sims who manage to stay the same unlock options that allow them to influence others to be more like them
____
Traits
Traits, besides determining what CAS sims start with, make it easier for a sim to move in one direction and harder for them to move in the other. A Gloomy sim is going to have an easier time going from "Normal" sadness to "Often" than vice versa.
____
Townies
So far, I've only talked about playables. Townies and NPCs would also have their own dynamic emotions, randomized at their creation to make things more interesting and then influenced by their interactions with other sims.
The randomization would need to be weighted. "Normal" should be the most common option for the emotions, with "Often" and "Rarely" the next most common. "Never" should be uncommon. Sims with any "Always" should be extremely rare, because while a sim that only feels one emotion can be amusing, sims with varied emotions are far more interesting and so should make up the majority.
Townies can also be trying to change or embracing their emotion, and will autonomously act accordingly. They're usually not doing either, though.
___
What do you think? Does it sound fun?
