How would you improve Teens?

Very annoying how some people act like height is the essence of teens.

To me it's irrelevant. They're fine as it is looks wise. I don't care about the picture, I care about gameplay and it's what teenagers need.

When you look at it, a teen's life mostly focuses around school. That's where they often spend more time than they do at home, unfortunately. That's where they get their first crushes, where they discover their hobbies...Why not focus on that? School projects in Parenthood was an excellent direction! I'd like to see this idea get expanded. Extracurricular activities/school clubs. New teen exclusive hobbies. Perhaps more chance cards with some random teen drama, but with way more consequences than just a moodlet.

I feel like the lack of hobby activities is one of this game's biggest issues overall.
Unique interests help you with creating unique personalities. Teens don't have any personality at this point and this is where devs should put their effort. Just give them something to do that is exclusive to them. No re-using already existing concepts. How fun would it be for a sim teenager to be able to start their own, cringy pop punk band so they can sing about how much they hate their town? To have some sort of popularity system where you could do little quests to improve your school reputation? For a goal oriented game like TS4 that would be perfect. Let's say the popular kids dare your teen sim to pull pranks on people in order to be accepted as one of the cool ones. Any basic american teenage drama is a good place to draw inspiration from.

"0xx_Simmer_xx0;c-16359799" wrote:
I want more events like Prom and Graduation. I also want more things for teens and teens only to do.

Agreed.

I would also love to see a return of some TS2 feature teens had, like running away, sneaking out or asking permission to go out. Especially if we got the ability to choose when Sims run away instead of leaving it to chance.

I would be very happy they if they make them shorter.

I i want acne to be real, not only "makeup", i think that its stupid and lazy.

I'm with right there with you on the acne issue, @NeverSeemsToEnd.

Okay, so the Sims team says that they don't want to hurt anyone's feelings by linking acne to hygiene? Fine. Then why not link it to mood, since the game is so huge on emotions? Or, how about making it genetic? Player's choice when creating their founding Sim. If neither of those ideas suit, how about making acne entirely random then?

But, no. As with so many other things in TS4, the solution is to totally axe an idea, altogether. Make something that looks like acne and call it done.

If I wanted acne make up, I could have made that myself. What I expect from the EA team are things that can't be created by any modder with a decent understanding of Photoshop or Gimp. I expect new systems that the awesome creators in the community can use to build on. Which brings me right back to the teens who are teens in name only.

It just bums me out. TS4 had the potential to be such an amazing game. Instead, it's the equivalent of that gorgeous guy that you've been dying to meet. However, once you finally do, he's got absolutely nothing going on between his ears and he's constantly looking for his reflection so that he can admire himself while he's speaking to you. If TS4 were a person, it would be that guy.

The game is so focused on the appearances, rather than how things work.

"Cynna;c-16371240" wrote:
I'm with right there with you on the acne issue, @NeverSeemsToEnd.

Okay, so the Sims team says that they don't want to hurt anyone's feelings by linking acne to hygiene? Fine. Then why not link it to mood, since the game is so huge on emotions? Or, how about making it genetic? Player's choice when creating their founding Sim. If neither of those ideas suit, how about making acne entirely random then?

But, no. As with so many other things in TS4, the solution is to totally axe an idea, altogether. Make something that looks like acne and call it done.

If I wanted acne make up, I could have made that myself. What I expect from the EA team are things that can't be created by any modder with a decent understanding of Photoshop or Gimp. I expect new systems that the awesome creators in the community can use to build on. Which brings me right back to the teens who are teens in name only.

It just bums me out. TS4 had the potential to be such an amazing game. Instead, it's the equivalent of that gorgeous guy that you've been dying to meet. However, once you finally do, he's got absolutely nothing going on between his ears and he's constantly looking for his reflection so that he can admire himself while he's speaking to you. If TS4 were a person, it would be that guy.

The game is so focused on the appearances, rather than how things work.

LOLOL That's exactly how i feel. If EA give the time and resourses developers need, this could be the most amazing sim game ever, gorgeous graphics even with the cartoon factor, a stable system, but lacks in gameplay, and makes me fall aslepp when i play.

We need a school game pack sort of like University but for High Schools as well!

Extracurricular activities, cliques and proms would be absolutely amazing.

"Cynna;c-16371240" wrote:
Then why not link it to mood, since the game is so huge on emotions?

Oh my, that's actually an amazing idea? Teenagers who get "tense" a lot should get acne. I know I still struggle with stress related acne even though I'm an adult. It's a thing, right? Stress makes your skin break out and since we already have a sort of stressed out emotion in the game it's a good way to make acne a part of gameplay.

Junk food could affect teenagers with acne as well. If a sim eats too much ice cream or sweet treats they could wake up with break outs the next day.

Obviously, it's always the players who get cool ideas, never the developers. Sad!

I voted add more content exclusive to them... although I'm good with them spreading this added content out. I'm in no hurry for it.

I know I definitely don't want them to shorten them, mostly because it would take way too much time and effort to redo all the animations as they are now. I don't want them to spend time, money or put effort into that. I also don't want them creepy small as teenagers. It would be weird to see a short teen going to prom in my opinion or on a date. If they were very slightly shorter than their young adult counterparts sure. The only way I'd want shorter is if they added in pre-teens and I really could care less if they did that. I don't see myself playing with a pre-teen all that often but I've surprised myself in the past. I know I wouldn't have a problem with them being added in.

I do want some events added though.. prom especially. Other items that make them stand out as teenagers.. mostly CAS items though. I can see cliques or peer pressure ect added but I also want a way out as not every teen is affected by that. What I mean by that is say you have a sim that has the gregarious trait.. they might be more affected. I'd actually rather a new trait was added in if you wanted them to be deeply affected by groups and cliques. If you had a sim with the loner trait they really might not care what others thought... and wouldn't be as affected by peer pressure growing up.

I guess what it boils down too for me is I still want to be able to play my homeless, challenged, surviving alone teens that don't act like most people believe teens do. Sometimes for certain people that stuff really isn't important... or they don't have time for it to be important to them. I want that choice.

I'd just add more tense buffs for school/academic related things. Maybe they have finals, or the 'S.I.M.'s, or their parents keep breathing down their necks about future plans. Ambitious parents could 'check grades' on the computer and get a positive or negative buff from that.

It would also be cool if the part-time jobs were broadened, and make to include adults. (Maybe have them be active?) Teens could intern, be lifeguards,

New clubs (okay, this could just be made by players) like theatre, speech and debate, student gov, sports, etc.

And finally, have the acne skin detail be triggered by the acne buff, like how JA poison works.

Well, this is going to sound like repeats of what others have said, but I don't mind the teenagers' appearance either. It makes it easier for the team to make animations and gives us access to more cas, which I'm happy with. However, they do need some more specific things to do. Parenthood was a step in the right direction. It made it a lot better, but a few things are still missing. I'd love for teens to have after school activities (drama club and such) and for the prom event to get a come back. More than that, though, I wish the game actually generated teenage and child sims. As it is, without creating a bunch of households I don't intend to control or using story-mods, my young sims never have any friends from school, and that is such a major part of the life of a child or teenager...