More Emotional & Hobby traits
I don't remember if I posted one before but I have noticed there's a lack of Emotional and Hobby traits http://i.imgur.com/pGCioLC.png http://i.imgur.com/yT3AqmI.png There's way too many Li...
Forum Discussion
I was actually thinking of posting a thread about the concept of 'expanded' traits but it makes sense to just bring it up here.
I was comparing about how the first two Sims games handled 'Simology' versus how the most recent two have handled the same and thinking about how to possibly obtain the best of both worlds. As those who are familiar with the older games - or just have their wikifu on - will know, the first two games didn't have traits but instead had things like the Personality and Interest systems which worked similar to how skills still work with a numerical ranking- so instead of having a 'Neat' trait you might have anywhere from one to five points on the 'Neat side' of a Neat-to-Slob scale or instead of a 'Bookworm' trait you would have anywhere from one to ten points in the Book interest.
Now, overall, I like the trait system that the series ended up going with. For a relatively casual franchise and one that focuses more on charm an aesthetics having a single descriptive feature works better (imo) than a spreadsheet of numbers. That being said, the trait system does lose a lot of variability over it's predecessors. Take again the concept of a 'Neat' Sim for example. In the Sims 4 you either simply have a Neat trait that gives you certain bonuses/penalties and behaviors or you don't; in the Sims 1 and 2 on the other hand your Sim could range anywhere from someone who slightly favors cleanliness over dirtiness to someone who is absolutely obsessed with all the appropriately more extreme behaviors. The former system is effectively all-or-nothing while the latter allows for a much greater range of variety.
I think a cool compromise would be to keep the trait system but have certain traits come in multiple levels- several traits that have a similar effect on a Sim but in differing amounts of extremity. (For anyone playing Stellaris, think about the Ethos system.) I think three 'levels' - and I would like to add that even though I use that term these traits would probably have individual names rather than just being labeled Trait 1/2/3 - for each trait 'class' would be a good amount that gives a good deal of variety without being too unwieldy.
I feel like this would definitely help with what TC/OP (I don't know the term this particular forum uses) wants in terms of expanded emotional and hobby traits. For example, there might be several traits relating to the Energized emotion but only the most extreme one would involve the Sim becoming Sad or Angry when they haven't exercised recently while at lower 'levels' they would just get Tense or even merely Bored. Someone with a low 'level' of the Geek class of trait might bring up geeky things occasionally while someone with a high 'level' will bring it up all the time and so on and so forth.
I was comparing about how the first two Sims games handled 'Simology' versus how the most recent two have handled the same and thinking about how to possibly obtain the best of both worlds. As those who are familiar with the older games - or just have their wikifu on - will know, the first two games didn't have traits but instead had things like the Personality and Interest systems which worked similar to how skills still work with a numerical ranking- so instead of having a 'Neat' trait you might have anywhere from one to five points on the 'Neat side' of a Neat-to-Slob scale or instead of a 'Bookworm' trait you would have anywhere from one to ten points in the Book interest.
Now, overall, I like the trait system that the series ended up going with. For a relatively casual franchise and one that focuses more on charm an aesthetics having a single descriptive feature works better (imo) than a spreadsheet of numbers. That being said, the trait system does lose a lot of variability over it's predecessors. Take again the concept of a 'Neat' Sim for example. In the Sims 4 you either simply have a Neat trait that gives you certain bonuses/penalties and behaviors or you don't; in the Sims 1 and 2 on the other hand your Sim could range anywhere from someone who slightly favors cleanliness over dirtiness to someone who is absolutely obsessed with all the appropriately more extreme behaviors. The former system is effectively all-or-nothing while the latter allows for a much greater range of variety.
I think a cool compromise would be to keep the trait system but have certain traits come in multiple levels- several traits that have a similar effect on a Sim but in differing amounts of extremity. (For anyone playing Stellaris, think about the Ethos system.) I think three 'levels' - and I would like to add that even though I use that term these traits would probably have individual names rather than just being labeled Trait 1/2/3 - for each trait 'class' would be a good amount that gives a good deal of variety without being too unwieldy.
I feel like this would definitely help with what TC/OP (I don't know the term this particular forum uses) wants in terms of expanded emotional and hobby traits. For example, there might be several traits relating to the Energized emotion but only the most extreme one would involve the Sim becoming Sad or Angry when they haven't exercised recently while at lower 'levels' they would just get Tense or even merely Bored. Someone with a low 'level' of the Geek class of trait might bring up geeky things occasionally while someone with a high 'level' will bring it up all the time and so on and so forth.
