Ideas at a Glance for Toddlers
So as an aside from the family play thread chat I wanted to offer people a place to suggest their ideas for a perfect scenarios for toddlers in TS4 in a bite size format as suggested by a couple of us...
Forum Discussion
Huge life stage jumps and teens that look like young adults has killed any desire to play families.
The key things with toddlers for me is parent/child bonding and growth and development.
The toddler stage was the bonding stage for my sims and their children. Babies are too young and the child stage is where they start forming their personalities and should be the beginning of working towards independence. No toddlers has really turned me off of playing families in TS4. That along with really old looking teens. I am waiting for a Generations EP. Aging is turned off and all my sims are single until we get it. So there is no family play for me.
Perhaps EA needs to take a deeper look at how they approach toddlers. It should not be a life stage that you want to skip. The age stage should have a bit of neediness and annoyance, but it should be endearing enough to be worth it. There should also be more relationship and growth rewards for going through it. I want the attention given to toddlers, or lack of it, to make a difference in their life. I would like to see EA focus more on that and less on making them tiresome and annoying.
Those who want to skip the toddler stage should not be penalized for doing so, i.e. getting a bad trait or not being able to choose one, but they will miss out on the extra benefits of raising a happy and healthy toddler.
One benefit I would like to see is a reward that will not let your sim die from extreme emotions.
A well cared for sim during the toddler stage is emotionally balanced. Extreme emotions is not a life risk.
The Sims 2 is a good touchstone for toddlers. There were a lot of good parent/toddler interactions. What I don't want is them waking up an screaming every time. Just let them scream when they have good reason to. The things that simmers find annoying in toddlers should happen when your sim is being a really poor parent and the child's development should suffer accordingly.
I like teaching them to walk and talk, but I don't want it to feel like a grind. There should also be some benefits for teaching them. Skilling for charisma and athleticism should get a boost.
The key things with toddlers for me is parent/child bonding and growth and development.
The toddler stage was the bonding stage for my sims and their children. Babies are too young and the child stage is where they start forming their personalities and should be the beginning of working towards independence. No toddlers has really turned me off of playing families in TS4. That along with really old looking teens. I am waiting for a Generations EP. Aging is turned off and all my sims are single until we get it. So there is no family play for me.
Perhaps EA needs to take a deeper look at how they approach toddlers. It should not be a life stage that you want to skip. The age stage should have a bit of neediness and annoyance, but it should be endearing enough to be worth it. There should also be more relationship and growth rewards for going through it. I want the attention given to toddlers, or lack of it, to make a difference in their life. I would like to see EA focus more on that and less on making them tiresome and annoying.
Those who want to skip the toddler stage should not be penalized for doing so, i.e. getting a bad trait or not being able to choose one, but they will miss out on the extra benefits of raising a happy and healthy toddler.
One benefit I would like to see is a reward that will not let your sim die from extreme emotions.
A well cared for sim during the toddler stage is emotionally balanced. Extreme emotions is not a life risk.
The Sims 2 is a good touchstone for toddlers. There were a lot of good parent/toddler interactions. What I don't want is them waking up an screaming every time. Just let them scream when they have good reason to. The things that simmers find annoying in toddlers should happen when your sim is being a really poor parent and the child's development should suffer accordingly.
I like teaching them to walk and talk, but I don't want it to feel like a grind. There should also be some benefits for teaching them. Skilling for charisma and athleticism should get a boost.
