Reintroduction of the Personality Points System
With so many complaints about the Sims in The Sims 4 lacking personality or being all the same, and the poll about adding more depth to relationships and emotions, I thought it would be a good idea to reconsider the way sims behave in general, for either TS4 or a future title.
The issue, I feel, with the trait system in TS4 is that it’s too basic. It doesn’t allow for depth of personality and this is because you can only have 3 traits (and one aspiration trait). However, as many people come to find out, these traits can make a sim very 1-dimensional.
Sure, your sim is a Perfectionist, and they’re Hot-Headed, and Materialistic, but then what else? That means that every other aspect of their life is now left as “generic”, “default” or “middle of the road”. They no longer have any inclinations toward certain behavior other than getting angry randomly, wanting expensive stuff, or feeling inadequate when they do subpar work.
That’s why I think that a hybrid system of Personality Points (from Sims 1/2) and Traits would be the best compromise. You could define a sim in terms of their laziness, their shyness, their niceness, their neatness, their playfulness, and their morality.
This would effectively eliminate very simple traits like Active, Lazy, Mean, Good, Evil, Loner, Outgoing, and Goofball. You could then just add on traits that add more character, flavor, emotionality, or hobbies to your sim.
I made a really simple example of the slider window we would use.
https://i.imgur.com/bpzNhGe.png
Then based on whether your sim is on the far end of a spectrum, off to one side, or right in the middle, you would get different autonomous behaviors, emotional reactions, and skill boosts.
Examples:
If a sim is right in the middle of a slider, then nothing would change. They would have the same general reaction to interactions in that category.
If a sim is on the far Active side, then not only are they more likely to get energized, they’re more likely to autonomously choose to do exercise (or other sporty activities) outside of the Energized emotion. They’ll also build fun while working out and get a minor boost (5-10%) to their Fitness skill gains.
If a sim is close to the Grouchy side of the slider, then they’re more likely to autonomously perform mean or rude socials or react negatively to positive ones. They aren’t fully grouchy though, so they won’t necessarily do it all the time or gain any boosts to Mischief or winning fights, for example.
Sims who are on the far Playful side are more likely to have positive reactions to being pranked, are more likely to do Funny/Mischievous interactions, and get the playful emotion more often. They can become bored when dealing with serious matters (watching the News, etc.)
The list could go on, but what this emphasizes is a new level of depth so that all sims now have individual personalities and behavior, rather than a couple traits to mask their very generic personalities. This is distinct from the character values in Parenthood, since it applies to NPCs as well.
The personality sliders would actually help influence their character values much like traits do by giving them head starts in either direction.
There could be more nuance added to this system as well, such as influencing changes to a sim’s personality over time, causing it to shift to one side or the other, or chance cards/random events that could cause a total change of heart or permanently lock/harden a personality trait. Or a +/- points system to keep people from making “perfect” sims without cheats.
Thoughts?
The issue, I feel, with the trait system in TS4 is that it’s too basic. It doesn’t allow for depth of personality and this is because you can only have 3 traits (and one aspiration trait). However, as many people come to find out, these traits can make a sim very 1-dimensional.
Sure, your sim is a Perfectionist, and they’re Hot-Headed, and Materialistic, but then what else? That means that every other aspect of their life is now left as “generic”, “default” or “middle of the road”. They no longer have any inclinations toward certain behavior other than getting angry randomly, wanting expensive stuff, or feeling inadequate when they do subpar work.
That’s why I think that a hybrid system of Personality Points (from Sims 1/2) and Traits would be the best compromise. You could define a sim in terms of their laziness, their shyness, their niceness, their neatness, their playfulness, and their morality.
This would effectively eliminate very simple traits like Active, Lazy, Mean, Good, Evil, Loner, Outgoing, and Goofball. You could then just add on traits that add more character, flavor, emotionality, or hobbies to your sim.
I made a really simple example of the slider window we would use.
https://i.imgur.com/bpzNhGe.png
Then based on whether your sim is on the far end of a spectrum, off to one side, or right in the middle, you would get different autonomous behaviors, emotional reactions, and skill boosts.
Examples:
If a sim is right in the middle of a slider, then nothing would change. They would have the same general reaction to interactions in that category.
If a sim is on the far Active side, then not only are they more likely to get energized, they’re more likely to autonomously choose to do exercise (or other sporty activities) outside of the Energized emotion. They’ll also build fun while working out and get a minor boost (5-10%) to their Fitness skill gains.
If a sim is close to the Grouchy side of the slider, then they’re more likely to autonomously perform mean or rude socials or react negatively to positive ones. They aren’t fully grouchy though, so they won’t necessarily do it all the time or gain any boosts to Mischief or winning fights, for example.
Sims who are on the far Playful side are more likely to have positive reactions to being pranked, are more likely to do Funny/Mischievous interactions, and get the playful emotion more often. They can become bored when dealing with serious matters (watching the News, etc.)
The list could go on, but what this emphasizes is a new level of depth so that all sims now have individual personalities and behavior, rather than a couple traits to mask their very generic personalities. This is distinct from the character values in Parenthood, since it applies to NPCs as well.
The personality sliders would actually help influence their character values much like traits do by giving them head starts in either direction.
There could be more nuance added to this system as well, such as influencing changes to a sim’s personality over time, causing it to shift to one side or the other, or chance cards/random events that could cause a total change of heart or permanently lock/harden a personality trait. Or a +/- points system to keep people from making “perfect” sims without cheats.
Thoughts?
