How would you improve Teens?

"SerraNolwen;c-16375480" wrote:
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...

My kids and teens meet others at school (with the 'meet friends' option when at school)... they just don't seem to socialize with their friends at all unless I invite them over (which they seem to do on their own occasionally). But once they're home, they forget all about them and go play on the computer or whatnot instead... that's the really annoying part!

But yes, the game seems to generate other teens and kids, the boys just all seem to be named 'seiji'.

I want to sing a lullaby to my baby sim, HOWEVER, the actual question's answer is that I would improve Teen and Children by including school activities, extracurricular activities, Prom (or some kind of formal dance.)

"LeGardePourpre;c-16341363" wrote:
Maybe they could get some exclusive Aspirations.
Should the Teen Aspiration be "Successful Lineage", "Big Happy Family" or "Super Parent" when they can't try for baby ?

Also, children have their own aspirations and I think that there should also be TEEN exclusive aspirations. These aspirations can also tie into the extracurricular activities. FOR INSTANCE, Pom Pom or Cheer Squad as an after school activity and an aspiration to Become Head Cheerleader, or Football Hero with a Football extracurricular (Maybe NOT football necessarily. Track or Basketball, a sports centered Aspiration), Honor Society and an aspiration like Whiz Kid to be the smartest kid at school. Bring back the Valedictorian and Salutatorian. . .

GRADUATION!!!

"Cinderellimouse;c-16337930" wrote:
My annoyance with teens at the moment is that the 'school' system is generic and pointless. It doesn't seem to matter if my teen gets good or bad grades. And the 'homework' is just a box ticking exercise. I'd love active schools! Or at least a choice of schools, like how we could send kids to private school by impressing the headmaster in TS2. But mostly I'd just like more customisation of the school life. Being able to pick classes or subjects to specialise in, so my arty Sims might get an assignment to paint a picture or brush up on their painting skill, or my computer nerd might get programming homework. Just so there's a bit more individuality and customisation. And also to feel like my Sims are going to school and doing their homework for a reason.

I'd like to see some sort of home schooling or maybe bring some elements of the CL job system to education; you could be given the option to go to school as normal or "study from home" then get two or three different tasks, like interview an elder Sim then write essay about life in the olden days, or collect 3 frogs for Biology Lab or 3 plants for Botany. I'd also modify the rabbit hole schools so children only meet other children and teens meet other teens; right now if you do "Meet Friends" at school you wind up meeting both children and teens and that's not very realistic (unless it's a really small school district you rarely have children and teens go to school together at least here in the US). If we do get a University pack, maybe teen Sims with good grades can get a scholarship and/or college credit if they have really good grades, sort of like if you take Advanced Placement classes in the United States.

Teen-only activities: basement bands (since we don't have garages), skateboarding (with a skate park and/or the ability to build our own with ramps, half-pipes and such) andould tie in with a Seasons pack by turning into snowboarding parks in the winter. We've already got the system where you can separate out part of your household funds for owning restaurants or retail stores; maybe that could be adapted to create teen savings accounts where they can save money for college or just moving out on their own. Would give more purpose for the teen part-time jobs, and when they age up to YA they can use that money to pay for college (if we have University) or just to get a head start by adding the savings to the base 20K they currently get. Add in some more worn/second hand furniture (we could get that Starter Home SP that was one of the choices in the Community Pack survey). An actual teen hangout where teens could gather and meet each other without kids or YA+ hanging around would be awesome.

We're not going to get shorter teens at this stage of the game; the work to adjust the clothing to match smaller frames would be way too much work. The height doesn't bother me that much; I've always been shorter than my nieces and nephews anyway. I think unique activities and interactons solely for teens would be enough. Or maybe something similar to the gender filter but for age; have some outfits that are solely for teens, but that can be removed if you're dressing your own Sims or a townie's household.

"QueenMercy;c-16339546" wrote:
I’d just like a couple of teen aspirations. Mostly because I want to see what kind of reward traits they might have.

Teen aspirations could be a great addition, especially since many of the adult ones are so limited (you can't finish them until you're an adult), like the one where you have to be in the Tech Guru career (meaning you have to be an adult) and the family related ones. I could see maybe a teen aspiration if we get University, to encourage teens to get good grades in high school. Reward trait could be something to help the Sim do better in university and in their careers. Then for University if you get an A average, when you choose a career you automatically start at the level where you choose the career branch (or some sort of equivalent for the GTW active careers).

"DragonCat159;c-16343893" wrote:
I would suggest allowing them to "run away", but EA nowadays wouldn't want to make a bad influence to its demography, that considers simmers being way below who is under adolescent age and almost turning the game into E rated. Well they could at least return the interaction between other teens/children of "giving a nuggie" from TS2

Teens can already live on their own; my current save's storyline is a teen that ran away to San Myshuno to escape an arranged marriage to one of her criminal dad's "business" associates. :o

@Francl27 I don't know why, my game barely generates any children after the first generation. It's been a while since I last checked, but once there was a single child in the neighborhood, and it has happened to me once or twice that there was apparently nobody to meet.

"Cynna;c-16338104" wrote:
I also agree that TS4 could have done with shorter teens, purely from the standpoint of more gradual aging. The skip from small child to full on adult-size AND behaviors is just too much for me.

There are things that I would love to see for teens:

• Arcades, not simply one machine.
  

• The ability to also play Voidcritters and to trade. (That is still a very teen thing to do.)
  

• Skateboarding and bike-riding, including popping wheelies or jumping the curbs.
  

• Teaching each other how to dance.
  

• LAN parties.
  

• Attempts to spike the punch bowl.
  

• Practical jokes.
  

• Party games -- charades, for example. Or, perhaps, Seven Minutes in Heaven, using the closet. (That game is certainly no worse than the "mess around in bed".)
  

• A teen rep system -- cool kids, mean kids, jocks, geeks, nerds. Totally different from clubs, please -- more like temporary traits that are earned as a result of overarching behavior. A teen can be happy, embarrassed, angry, or sad about the trait that they've earned among the teen crowd. They can seek to change the trait or to embrace it with pride, depending on the teen's preexisting, permanent traits.
  

• Cheerleading, sports, and sports clubs, including fundraising activities, events/contests, and away games on the weekends.
  

• Class trips to destination worlds.
  

• Be camp counselors for the younger kids during the summer. (Another good use for Granite Falls.)
  

• Makeup and nail parties (I'm dying for fingernails/manicures to officially make their appearance in the series.)
  

• Real movie theaters where teens can meet up with friends, buy junk food, and actually sit to watch the movie. Stay until the movie is over, whispering, giggling, and throwing popcorn.
  

• Bring back pillow fights
  

• Allow teens to loll across the bed to use their cellphones.
  

• Allow teens to sit cross-legged or lay on the floor to do certain activities such as playing video games, watching television, speaking to friends, speaking on the phone. Parents can encourage them to get up or move out of the way. :D
  

• Sneaking out to meet friends or a boyfriend/girlfriend
  

• Places in the world where only the teens hang out. Such as: Lover's Lane, a particular beach, or even the area under the bridge in BB. If teens break curfew, that's the first place the police will check. (Give the police something real-world to do. It would be nice to see them working.)
  

wow yeah these things. I haven't had too many issues with teens and people are always saying they need to be better. Most of the suggestions like height I could live without but these ideas are really good. I would love to see these things added to the game.

The height is a major issue for me so they either need to fix teens or add preteens massive size jumps make it hard to tell stories when you go from a child to a adult sized teen in a instant. Teens need hobbies activities teen specific traits lot types teens show up to and high school is another thing teens need adults have a endless supply of active careers you can follow them all day the teens not so much.

I don't think the teens can sneak out still can they? I'd like some more mischievous options for them. Being a teenager is all about rebellion you know? It makes the game more interesting.

"kismet;c-16377155" wrote:
I don't think the teens can sneak out still can they? I'd like some more mischievous options for them. Being a teenager is all about rebellion you know? It makes the game more interesting.

Yes I think Sims 2 were the rebels of the franchise they snuck out with the chance of getting caught by police.

Going on with a school day Game Pack have teens get a chance to ditch school which they do but do they get caught? If not like they should get caught and have consequences of getting grounded at home. I remember ditching and getting caught it was not pretty when I got home.