Generations Expansion (Includes School Update)
Family game play sucks in Sims 4. From our object babies to boring elders. Each life stage needs some serious work. Having a family was challenging and engaging in previous versions of the game. So, I complained a list of elements I would need in a Generation expansion. A real expansion not a glorified game pack.
The community has been very clear about babies not being objects. I whole heartily agree. In Sims 3 we could see their needs and they even had basic personality: favorite music, color and a zodiac sign. I love this as I built their personalities around it. So, I’m going to break down my desires in a realistic list and unrealistic list because I don’t think all my requirements can or would happen.
Realistic:
Can leave the bassinet
Interact with pets
New objects: baby carrier/sling, baby swing, baby play pen, play mat, rattles
More outfits
Them be sims in the household (we got toddlers this is totally possible)
Unrealistic:
Different stages of growth:
Newborn doesn’t do much at first but then learns to smile and make different sounds. They will learn to roll over and sit up towards the end of stage.
Crawler: Can sit up, babbles, and crawl
Personalities: Temporary personality traits like fussy baby, happy baby, clingy baby and curious baby.
Fussy baby: Cries a lot more than other babies. Needs decay faster. Hates being alone. Relationships grow more slowly
Happy baby: Rarely cries unless their needs are low. Needs decay slower. Doesn’t mind being alone but will get fussy after a long time. Relationships grow quickly.
Clingy baby: Cries if a parent sim leaves the lot without them or is alone in a room. Loves to be carried in a baby carrier/sling. Relationships are extremely high with parents at birth.
Curious baby: Likes to explore and will learn to roll over, sit up and crawl faster than other babies. Loves to play with toys and doesn’t mind me alone most of the day. Builds relationships quickly with pets. Average relationship growth with parents.
We need a daycare for toddlers and nannies that teach toddlers the toddler skills not just cook and watch TV. Butlers are slightly better but not much with child rearing. Unless you have a sim that works from home or doesn’t work it is impossible to get skills up on toddlers on the normal lifespan. The daycare should build all the skills. But having a kid in daycare should have a weekly fee and give them a boost when become children in their school grade. Nannies should only have a small grade gain and butlers/private tutor should be equal to a daycare but obviously more expensive. Nannies in Sims 4 are just older babysitters.
Kids need more toys and interactions. Like a tree house, playing dress up, drawing on walls, origami, dolls (larger dolls that can be carrier around they can treat like babies), a kitchen set, drum set, comic books, handheld gaming system, and more video games. It would be cool to see them do spin offs of Power Ranger and other famous kids shows/toys I’d also like to see kids be more kid like. Playing pranks, having desert before dinner, refusing to eat dinner, and more autonomous playing. I’d like to less control of kids and them being well kids. Kids cannot be assigned specific chores just do random ones and most don’t listen to specific rules or do for a short period of time before they forget them. With the addition of a new life state they should not be able to skip school.
This is slightly unrealistic, but I really want to see is temporary kids’ traits. I hate that I must pick adult traits for my kids that can only be changed with cheats or reward points. Here are a few examples of child only traits: daredevil, sporty, whiny, trickster, sweet, and nerd.
A new life state: preteens. They are slightly taller than kids but shorter than teens. They are sassier than kids. They will go through phases where they wear makeup, wear only black, be mean to siblings and can develop crushes. They have little interest in playing with toys but can be clingy to their favorite toys (refuse to get rid of or let younger siblings play with them). Instead of playing with toys they will favor the radio, BeTween TV, handheld video gaming system, video gaming, playing on their phone, having sleepovers and gossiping. I think of this of the stage where kids hang around in a circle outside and instead of playing are talking and playing games together. They would also go through stages where they had celebrity crushes and get obsessed with a band or TV show.
They can lose friends due to arguments/ect, a friend can move away, go to a different middle school and develop crushes via completely random events. I’d love to see the different middle school event right after the transition between kid and preteen. They will get a sad moodlet from certain events. To avoid any creepiness crushes should be completely random and cannot be controlled by the player. They could be completely random preteen sims or friends. Events where they could go to dances and concerts would also be cool. Also, they should have their own version of social media. They should also be able to be assigned specific parenting rules and chores. They can skip school and you can decide to go with them to specific lot or do it like pop up event. For pop up events they can go to the mall, movies, the park, and a friend’s house. They should be able to be caught trying to skip class by the principle/teacher, police officer for truancy, or by their parents/friend’s parents.
Parenting improvements are must. Like being able assign specific chores: clean the bathroom, do the laundry, dishes, ect. Also having specific rules like no dating, curfew specific to individual kids, no gaming after a certain time, setting a bedtime, ect. Better discipline such as sending a kid to their room for the night, no desserts, and taking away phone should make it be so it cannot be interacted with other than for travel. Disciplining a child should not hurt relationships but yelling at them like strict parents do should hurt relationships. No one likes being yelled at. Being able to plan family movie night, family game night, ect. Teens and preteens can be rebellious by refusing to participate or whine about it. Parents can either excuse them from family night or discipline them for being ‘dramatic’. I’d love to see parents be able to be part of PDA or parenting groups at the least where they can organize play dates and exchange parenting advice.
Teenagers need to be more moody and general pain in the butts. They should sneak out more and be rebellious. They should be able to ask their parents if they can get piercings or tattoos. And if they parent says no, they can sneak out and get in anyway. I’d love to see when the sneak out it be a series of pop ups like exploring with pets. For example, you can sneak out to a movie, a club, a party or the mall. They should also sneak drinks from the bar like they could in Sims 2, I found it entertaining when they did this. Like preteens they can get obsessed with a band, TV show, book series, ect. They can go to new events like parties, sleepovers, concerts and clubs. I’d honestly prefer more rabbit holes because when you have multiple kids the same age this becomes a real pain. If they sneak out, they have to sneak back in with different varying results depending on their athletic or mischief skill. It was fun detail they in Sims 2 before becoming Young Adults they went through puberty aka got acne.
For minors in general there need to be more after school activities. Ballet, different sports, band, chess, gardening, cooking, ect. This is my biggest pet peeve in the game currently. I have to use moods to simulate this the best I can.
In general, the Sims team could be way more creative. I’d love to see anime, manga, J-Pop/K-Pop, book releases/more books for kids/teens, and comic books. Anime, manga and J-Pop/K-Pop have become a huge part of preteen and teen culture recently why not take advantage of it.
Moving onto adults as young adults have all the interactions so nothing new there. But I NEED a midlife crisis for adult sims. There should be moodlets for wanting marriage, to have a baby, change careers, ect for adults. They don’t happen for young adults only adults as there are certain exceptions. Elder sims could even try to encourage or pester adults about getting married or having kids.
Elders need more activities and shouldn’t be so fragile with exhaustion. I find they way it is set up now is insulting. A sim’s fitness skill and body fitness should affect their lifespan and abilities as an elder. Like if a sim had poor fitness in their earlier life they will need to walk with a cane or walker. Elders should also be able reminisce about their youth, share pictures of grandchildren and tell stories about their youth to their grandchildren. They should also be able to complain about neighborhood kids in their yard, how kids are these days, and how good the good ole days were. Elders should also be able to join specific clubs if they are retired such as chess, gardening, knitting, book club, ect just like kids and teens. They should also get moodlets form volunteering as well as having their grandkids over. They should be able to call their kids and ask for grandchildren to visit as well as kids should be able to visit/spend the night with their grandparents as a non-playable event if you so choose so. This should apply to toddler and older without the parent also joining and the baby with the parent joining.
For the case of visiting other family members kids should be able to visit aunts/uncles and another parents’ home if their parents do not live together. Child support should be a thing again like in Sims 3. There should also be an option not to ask for child support when a baby is born or when they get divorced. Also, it must be decided if a child can visit the other parent depending on the relationship of the parents, like in a nasty divorce it isn’t as common for example. This should all be player choices of course to avoid being too edgy for some people.
Schools need a rehaul as well. I currently use mods to make schools tolerable. I really don’t want an interactive school as with households with multiple kids this would almost impossible. And if it works like it does for Get to Work it would drive me crazy only be able to control one kid at a time. I want them to function better. Like being able to gain skills at school and more interactions in the menu: daydream, recess, read a book in class, play on phone in class, flirt with classmates (teens only), pull pranks, misbehave/be rude to teacher, sneak out (various result rates depending on athletic/motor skill and mischief/logic/mental skill. Also being able to get detention for not behaving or being distracted in class too much (like there are three warnings before you get detention per week). Detentions are served after class and if you are in a club you miss it. If you get multiple detentions a week you could get a Saturday detention or removed from your club.
Different school options: public, private and boarding schools. Public schools are the same as always. With the addition of preteens this would add middle schools. Private schools’ function like they did in Sims 2 where you had to invite over headmasters and impress them to get into the school. Boarding schools are a straightforward as you would apply on the computer. Public schools are free, private schools are varying expenses and boarding school is the most expensive.
Private schools have benefits for university and careers. Homework is harder and a certain grade must be maintained, or they will be kicked out. If they get too many detentions or miss too much school, they will also be kicked out. They have uniforms. If they go to school not in uniform, they will get a warning the first them then after that they get detention. There are several different types of private schools that focus on different things. One in an art school that focuses on the arts, another that focuses on science, another on sports and the most expensive one focuses on everything. This school is the hardest one to get into as well as has the highest tuition. It is possible to get into private schools with a recommendation from a teacher or alumni as well as if the parents were alumni. There are also scholarships for sim kids with high skills or extremely low income. There are special handshakes and other social interactions depending on the school.
There should be several different boarding schools with different tuition. There should be a boarding school that is European style and another that is American style. There should also be other options based on speciates: arts, science, athletics, general (all skills), and military. There should be a special option for those with Realm of Magic or Vampires which is a special boarding school for occult sims. Kids could call/write home and ask to come home like in Sims 3 or they are happier at boarding school. It should have benefits for careers and university. It has a special social interaction depending on the school like in Sims 3.
The boarding school for those with occult packs: Realm of Magic or Vampires will gain skills for their life state. If you do not have those installed it can be used for aliens, ghost, and mermaids. If you don’t have any of these in your game, it would a greyed-out option.
Military school is usually forced when your sim does poor in school, too many truancies, or too many detentions. This can also be a choice via the computer.
The community has been very clear about babies not being objects. I whole heartily agree. In Sims 3 we could see their needs and they even had basic personality: favorite music, color and a zodiac sign. I love this as I built their personalities around it. So, I’m going to break down my desires in a realistic list and unrealistic list because I don’t think all my requirements can or would happen.
Realistic:
Unrealistic:
We need a daycare for toddlers and nannies that teach toddlers the toddler skills not just cook and watch TV. Butlers are slightly better but not much with child rearing. Unless you have a sim that works from home or doesn’t work it is impossible to get skills up on toddlers on the normal lifespan. The daycare should build all the skills. But having a kid in daycare should have a weekly fee and give them a boost when become children in their school grade. Nannies should only have a small grade gain and butlers/private tutor should be equal to a daycare but obviously more expensive. Nannies in Sims 4 are just older babysitters.
Kids need more toys and interactions. Like a tree house, playing dress up, drawing on walls, origami, dolls (larger dolls that can be carrier around they can treat like babies), a kitchen set, drum set, comic books, handheld gaming system, and more video games. It would be cool to see them do spin offs of Power Ranger and other famous kids shows/toys I’d also like to see kids be more kid like. Playing pranks, having desert before dinner, refusing to eat dinner, and more autonomous playing. I’d like to less control of kids and them being well kids. Kids cannot be assigned specific chores just do random ones and most don’t listen to specific rules or do for a short period of time before they forget them. With the addition of a new life state they should not be able to skip school.
This is slightly unrealistic, but I really want to see is temporary kids’ traits. I hate that I must pick adult traits for my kids that can only be changed with cheats or reward points. Here are a few examples of child only traits: daredevil, sporty, whiny, trickster, sweet, and nerd.
A new life state: preteens. They are slightly taller than kids but shorter than teens. They are sassier than kids. They will go through phases where they wear makeup, wear only black, be mean to siblings and can develop crushes. They have little interest in playing with toys but can be clingy to their favorite toys (refuse to get rid of or let younger siblings play with them). Instead of playing with toys they will favor the radio, BeTween TV, handheld video gaming system, video gaming, playing on their phone, having sleepovers and gossiping. I think of this of the stage where kids hang around in a circle outside and instead of playing are talking and playing games together. They would also go through stages where they had celebrity crushes and get obsessed with a band or TV show.
They can lose friends due to arguments/ect, a friend can move away, go to a different middle school and develop crushes via completely random events. I’d love to see the different middle school event right after the transition between kid and preteen. They will get a sad moodlet from certain events. To avoid any creepiness crushes should be completely random and cannot be controlled by the player. They could be completely random preteen sims or friends. Events where they could go to dances and concerts would also be cool. Also, they should have their own version of social media. They should also be able to be assigned specific parenting rules and chores. They can skip school and you can decide to go with them to specific lot or do it like pop up event. For pop up events they can go to the mall, movies, the park, and a friend’s house. They should be able to be caught trying to skip class by the principle/teacher, police officer for truancy, or by their parents/friend’s parents.
Parenting improvements are must. Like being able assign specific chores: clean the bathroom, do the laundry, dishes, ect. Also having specific rules like no dating, curfew specific to individual kids, no gaming after a certain time, setting a bedtime, ect. Better discipline such as sending a kid to their room for the night, no desserts, and taking away phone should make it be so it cannot be interacted with other than for travel. Disciplining a child should not hurt relationships but yelling at them like strict parents do should hurt relationships. No one likes being yelled at. Being able to plan family movie night, family game night, ect. Teens and preteens can be rebellious by refusing to participate or whine about it. Parents can either excuse them from family night or discipline them for being ‘dramatic’. I’d love to see parents be able to be part of PDA or parenting groups at the least where they can organize play dates and exchange parenting advice.
Teenagers need to be more moody and general pain in the butts. They should sneak out more and be rebellious. They should be able to ask their parents if they can get piercings or tattoos. And if they parent says no, they can sneak out and get in anyway. I’d love to see when the sneak out it be a series of pop ups like exploring with pets. For example, you can sneak out to a movie, a club, a party or the mall. They should also sneak drinks from the bar like they could in Sims 2, I found it entertaining when they did this. Like preteens they can get obsessed with a band, TV show, book series, ect. They can go to new events like parties, sleepovers, concerts and clubs. I’d honestly prefer more rabbit holes because when you have multiple kids the same age this becomes a real pain. If they sneak out, they have to sneak back in with different varying results depending on their athletic or mischief skill. It was fun detail they in Sims 2 before becoming Young Adults they went through puberty aka got acne.
For minors in general there need to be more after school activities. Ballet, different sports, band, chess, gardening, cooking, ect. This is my biggest pet peeve in the game currently. I have to use moods to simulate this the best I can.
In general, the Sims team could be way more creative. I’d love to see anime, manga, J-Pop/K-Pop, book releases/more books for kids/teens, and comic books. Anime, manga and J-Pop/K-Pop have become a huge part of preteen and teen culture recently why not take advantage of it.
Moving onto adults as young adults have all the interactions so nothing new there. But I NEED a midlife crisis for adult sims. There should be moodlets for wanting marriage, to have a baby, change careers, ect for adults. They don’t happen for young adults only adults as there are certain exceptions. Elder sims could even try to encourage or pester adults about getting married or having kids.
Elders need more activities and shouldn’t be so fragile with exhaustion. I find they way it is set up now is insulting. A sim’s fitness skill and body fitness should affect their lifespan and abilities as an elder. Like if a sim had poor fitness in their earlier life they will need to walk with a cane or walker. Elders should also be able reminisce about their youth, share pictures of grandchildren and tell stories about their youth to their grandchildren. They should also be able to complain about neighborhood kids in their yard, how kids are these days, and how good the good ole days were. Elders should also be able to join specific clubs if they are retired such as chess, gardening, knitting, book club, ect just like kids and teens. They should also get moodlets form volunteering as well as having their grandkids over. They should be able to call their kids and ask for grandchildren to visit as well as kids should be able to visit/spend the night with their grandparents as a non-playable event if you so choose so. This should apply to toddler and older without the parent also joining and the baby with the parent joining.
For the case of visiting other family members kids should be able to visit aunts/uncles and another parents’ home if their parents do not live together. Child support should be a thing again like in Sims 3. There should also be an option not to ask for child support when a baby is born or when they get divorced. Also, it must be decided if a child can visit the other parent depending on the relationship of the parents, like in a nasty divorce it isn’t as common for example. This should all be player choices of course to avoid being too edgy for some people.
Schools need a rehaul as well. I currently use mods to make schools tolerable. I really don’t want an interactive school as with households with multiple kids this would almost impossible. And if it works like it does for Get to Work it would drive me crazy only be able to control one kid at a time. I want them to function better. Like being able to gain skills at school and more interactions in the menu: daydream, recess, read a book in class, play on phone in class, flirt with classmates (teens only), pull pranks, misbehave/be rude to teacher, sneak out (various result rates depending on athletic/motor skill and mischief/logic/mental skill. Also being able to get detention for not behaving or being distracted in class too much (like there are three warnings before you get detention per week). Detentions are served after class and if you are in a club you miss it. If you get multiple detentions a week you could get a Saturday detention or removed from your club.
Different school options: public, private and boarding schools. Public schools are the same as always. With the addition of preteens this would add middle schools. Private schools’ function like they did in Sims 2 where you had to invite over headmasters and impress them to get into the school. Boarding schools are a straightforward as you would apply on the computer. Public schools are free, private schools are varying expenses and boarding school is the most expensive.
Private schools have benefits for university and careers. Homework is harder and a certain grade must be maintained, or they will be kicked out. If they get too many detentions or miss too much school, they will also be kicked out. They have uniforms. If they go to school not in uniform, they will get a warning the first them then after that they get detention. There are several different types of private schools that focus on different things. One in an art school that focuses on the arts, another that focuses on science, another on sports and the most expensive one focuses on everything. This school is the hardest one to get into as well as has the highest tuition. It is possible to get into private schools with a recommendation from a teacher or alumni as well as if the parents were alumni. There are also scholarships for sim kids with high skills or extremely low income. There are special handshakes and other social interactions depending on the school.
There should be several different boarding schools with different tuition. There should be a boarding school that is European style and another that is American style. There should also be other options based on speciates: arts, science, athletics, general (all skills), and military. There should be a special option for those with Realm of Magic or Vampires which is a special boarding school for occult sims. Kids could call/write home and ask to come home like in Sims 3 or they are happier at boarding school. It should have benefits for careers and university. It has a special social interaction depending on the school like in Sims 3.
The boarding school for those with occult packs: Realm of Magic or Vampires will gain skills for their life state. If you do not have those installed it can be used for aliens, ghost, and mermaids. If you don’t have any of these in your game, it would a greyed-out option.
Military school is usually forced when your sim does poor in school, too many truancies, or too many detentions. This can also be a choice via the computer.
