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JesLet40's avatar
JesLet40
Seasoned Ace
2 days ago

Development of traits to make them more impactful

I've been thinking a lot about traits lately, and how they could be made to be much more impactful in the game. I think this would be an improvement of the game that could really influence depth of gameplay and enjoyment of the game, to flesh out our sims' characters. 

Looking at what traits does in the sims wiki, it's very often moodlets and feelings, but as sims tend to get a lot of positive feelings from things like pretty interior design or good food, these are often drowned out. Also feelings doesn't very often lead to reactions in interactions, especially when on autonomous. 

What could be done to improve the traits: 

  • The development of likes and dislikes could be more closely tied to traits, rather than moods when sims perform an action. 
  • What type of conversation the sim enjoys, and autonomously takes part in, could be more closely tied to traits (not just special topics being available but things like if they engage in small talk or not, if they like deep conversations or talking about their hobbies). 
  • This could be reflected in their own pie menu in conversations, so that it would be different for sims depending on traits (so for mean or evil sims mean interactions would be readily available, while for good sims mean interactions might even be invisible unless they are angry)
  • What TV-channel the sim enjoys and autonomously chooses to watch could be trait related. Also if they think TV is fun or just a waste of time. Same with books and what books they read autonomously. If they read autonomously. 
  • Skill gain could be affected by traits more than today.
  • How long homework takes or how big the skill gain is for being helped (depending on the trait and skill of the sim helping). A mean, evil or hot headed sim "helping" with homework could be stressful and lead to slower progress, and possibly an angry outburst for the frustrated adult, a genius helping out would lead to much faster progress. Even better if skill gain was tied to homework. Perhaps the reaction of the child could also be tied to trait (so a hot-headed child might react with anger if progress isn't fast enough and yell at the parent, while a genius child would become bored with "silly help" when they feel they could do better on their own). Same with school projects. 
  • Lazy or slob sims should not be making their beds (nor should toddlers, children or teens unless neat, perfectionist and overachievers). 
  • How a sim reacts to events such as pranks, weather events, children making messes, things breaking could be visually different depending on traits. 
  • How easy or hared it is to build relationships could be affected. 
  • Parenting styles, family dynamics and parenting skill. This could also be affected in pie menus of parenthood - so a hot-headed, mean or evil sim would not be able to "influence child" but would always use "force" instead and would have a harder time building parenting style. They'd choose strict parenting style more often (and not be affected negatively by it). They'd yell at the child instead of "being disappointed". Other traits might have other influences of their parenting styles, like not being able to punish children, being more prone to develop a permissive parenting style (with fewer negative consequenses) than others and so on. 
  • How you interact with pets. Evil or mean sim would yell more at pets and be more annoyed if they get things wrong. Lazy sims would not be able to lecture for bad behaviour (unless they woke them up in which case they'd get mad). 

Overall adding more dynamics to traits (including lifestyles from snowy escape) would really make the gameplay richer. 

1 Reply

  • I forgot all about character traits, these should definitely be influenced by a child's and teen's other traits. 

    • An child/teen with the evil trait should not be able to develop their empathy, and should start way out into the red so that a parent has to work to make them not develop the unemphatic trait. With the best to hope for is a neutral. 
    • A hot-headed child/teen should start out way in the red for the emotional control and again, not be entirely able to develop the trait at all, but at best hope for neutral. They'd also have a very hard time with conflict resolution. 
    • Mean sims should have a hard time developing empathy (starting full red, just like evil) but should also have a hard time developing manners (while an evil sim can be perfectly polite on the surface, a mean sim would have a harder time with this). 
    • A lazy or slob sim would have a harder time with responsibility and possibly manners to
    • A outgoing sim would have an easier time with conflict resolution and manners
    • A good sim would have a very easy time with conflict resolution and empathy

     

    And so on. I think many traits could affect character values, especially their starting points, so that it's less or more work depending on a child's and teen's traits. 

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