Forum Discussion
9 years ago
"Neia;14639182" wrote:
For me, the gameplay of toddlers should revolve around learning and acquiring autonomy. I want to feel like my toddlers have learned and became more automous at the end of their life stage, compared to the beginning, thus giving me, the player, the feeling of "raising" and "growing up". For example, with potty training, my toddler is now able to use the potty alone, and it makes it easier for the Sims parents, and gives me a feeling of progression. I want the toddlers to be highly challenging at the beginning of the life stage, and becoming easier and easier as the toddler learn things (either by himself, or with parents' interactions). Raising the toddler, and seeing him make progress is the reward in itself for me.
Bonding with others would be my second most important point : a large range of interactions with all the other life stages is essential, in particular with other children or toddlers. I don't want the toddlers to feel sort of isolated because they can't interact as much with others.
I would love the learning process of toddlers to be improved. Walking, talking and potty training are the three obvious main skills but I think these could be expanded too :
- Walking could be expanded to going up and down the stairs (with hands, without), interacting with the furniture, running, jumping -> a motor skill
- Talking could unlock new interactions to ask the toddlers about what they want, how they feel, or ask them to do things (even indirectly, with interactions giving emotions for example, like trying to calm them to remove angry, that could unlock when they have a high enough skill)
- Skills could unlock new interactions with toys too, to simulate the "this toy was too complicated before, now I can play with it", perhaps with toddlers getting all angry/bored if the toys is too hard for them, and toddlers playing with their toys in new ways as they grow up ?
The learning process of these skills could be more involved than parent interaction -> skill bar filling. I think those could be more autonomous from the toddler interacting with the environment and linked to emotions, with toys giving different emotions moodlets to stimulate the little toddlers :
- Baby walker could give an energized moodlet, and energized toddlers would attempt to walk/go up the stairs and learn the walking/motor skill
- Stack blocks could give a focused moodlet, and focused toddlers would be more likely to progress in a mental skill
Emotions could have a huge impact on what the toddlers do or don't : an energized toddler would not want to sleep for example. So attentive Sim parents would pay attention so they don't get overexcited before going to bed and give them calmer toys. I think it could be fun if Sim parents have to adapt to the toddlers' emotions, with toys and various items allowing some kind of manipulation of those emotions. Angry toddler refuse to eat -> either try to calm them (skill interaction) or distract them with a toy or just wait till they are calmer -> try again with the food once they are no longer angry. To go back to the sense of progression I mentionned at the beginning : as the toddlers progress in the skills, the impact of emotions and how much influence they have on the everyday life, could be lowered, with new interactions/new buffs thus giving the impression that the toddler is growing up and becoming more reasonnable and more autonomous.
I'm not too keen on the bad raising = bad traits. I would prefer if raising gave a bonus trait, like the children aspiration ones, perhaps a bonus to the acquisition of child skills, which would makes raising children easier later, but still not something obligatory.
Those are fantastic ideas.
First off, I wholeheartedly agree that the three main toddler skills should be expanded. However I also think that toddlers need to start learning child skills, because children do not get enough time to maximize child skills on a normal lifespan. Therefore, once your toddler learned to walk, they would be able to raise their child motor skills. Raising this skills would give toddlers new interactions like practice jumping, climbing on furniture (with more success). and going up and down stairs (the animations would vary based on their motor skill level). To keep toddlers from getting to high in child skills, you could have the toddler gain these skills at half the rate of children (they are toddlers after all), and maybe cap the level at 5, so at best, children still have to learn half of the skill.
Respectively, once toddlers learn how to talk, they would be able to gain the child social skill which would also unlock new interactions (like asking more difficult questions, being better at saying the right words when asking a questions, etc).
Toddlers can also gain mental and creativity child skills, however, unlike motor and social, these are not locked at the beginning, and instead are mostly gained by certain objects that toddlers use (mental/logical toys, toddler TV channel?) (creative toys xylophone, using child are table for fingerprinting or coloring with unique pictures).
Your emotions ideas is also awesome, and I this feature definitely should have a big impact on toddlers and what they do.
Like you said before, energized toddlers would not be able to sleep (unless they pass out of course due to low energy). These toddlers would obviously lose energy slower, and in this state, toddlers should have a hard time doing activities that require them to sit still or listen (such as being read a story or being taught to use the potty). Toddlers would also learn all mental skills slower while energized. Instead of angry toddlers outright refusing to eat, it would be fun if angry toddlers occasionally threw their food or bottle on the floor. Toddlers in these emotions would refuse to listen to their parents in general, would throw a lot of tantrums, and would potentially cause mayhem in the house (such as smashing/wrecking doll houses, flushing a toy down the toilet therefore breaking it. They would also have difficulties during bath time, constantly screaming/yelling and splashing about. When toddlers are in this emotion, it would be wise for parents to try to calm them down. I also agree that certain skills should help a toddler cop with these emotions. Toddler who are better at talking, are less likely to get angry, because they can communicate their problems instead of crying, allowing the parent to better take care of them. An example of this would be a hungry toddler. If the toddler was not good at communicating, when the toddler gets hungry enough, it would get a angry buff immediately and start complaining. Even after the toddler was fed, it would have some residual anger because the parent took to long to take care of it (a +1 or +2 anger buff that last 2-4 hours). If the toddler knew how to talk, however, they would instead be pushed to autonomously ask the parent for food when hungry, and it would take them longer for these toddlers to get angry over a lack of food.
Again love all the ideas posted so far, and love that this thread is pinned. Maybe that means there is hope for toddlers after all.
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