[EBN] Balance system reacts way to extreme

i mentioned previously that i think stacking moodlets from packs might be partly to blame, and wanted to expand on that. at the current moment in game, my sim has the following moodlets:

bringing out the best (inspired +1)
charged (inspired +1)
otherworldly guidance (inspired +1)
sparked by clouds (inspired +1)
just married (happy +3)
new baby (happy +3)
connected roots (happy +2)
feeling great (happy +2)
fresh air! (happy +2)
my power grows (happy +2)
bidet made (happy +1)
idealists, assemble! (happy +1)
night owl (happy +1)
oh no, your call is dropping! (happy +1)
saved the day (happy +1)
widow (sad +4)
loss in the family (sad +3)
birds and the bees (flirty +1)
privacy invaded (embarrassed +1)

just like you mentioned in your op, when my sim gets a playful moodlet without any other stronger emotions (like if she gives an infant a bubble bath for the milestone), she immediately hits hysterical, which then shifts her to very imbalanced and triggers an ailment. i'm not sure the balance system accounts for high emotions due to just having a ton of packs.

I am glad it is not only me! My apothecary sim had the needle at the top of the balance bar for the. Majority of gameplay, yet many times I have got the notification that she has woken up with an ailment. I haven’t had to put much effort into upping the apothecary skill as she is forever making cures for herself. 

I understood (kind of) that she caught an ailment from a naturopath client she had just cured, but that was the only one of the 10+ ailments I could see a cause for as all the others she just woke up with (all with top balance). Then in the first week of her summer, she went outside to bask in the light of her green neighbourhood and instantly was sunburned. A few days later her balance finally moved off the top of the scale with an immediate drop to the bottom of imbalance and it felt like she spent the day eating cures because as soon as one ailment was cured, the next arrived. Several sim hours of meditating in nature later, she was back to perfect balance. 

I do wonder if the mood bush is to blame for her sudden imbalance because, although there have been no events to give her a negative mood, the does get multiple positive and negative moods from that bush every time she is in the garden. 

Sounds like a covid themed EP...

I noticed when I am on public lots for long periods of time, not even socializing with other sims much, they get ailments so fast (assume public toilets/commune kitchens?), then they just re-infects themselves I assume. 

After coming home and some sims only going to work and not visiting other lots, once I gave a round of cures (so no one could re-infect), I haven't gotten any in some time.

So basically, quarantine and mass cure and just never leave home besides work or just wander the neighbourhood for collecting/fishing... that doesn't sound too fun after a while.

Sadly, this seems the way of it. Things start out on the too much is not enough side of things, and then EA has to tweak it. Hence now we can turn off dust from Bust the Dust and a few other choices.

Oh, wow. I've played Sims 4 since it was first released, and yet it didn't occur to me to look to see if certain pack actions could be turned off. Why? I don't know. When I set up a new save, I do the Options thing. I may just go back and disable Balance & Imbalance, since that led to my favorite Sim becoming ill. I'm befuddled and annoyed all at once. I don't have any of the other occults, and to be honest I would never place faeries under Occult.

I do admit my Rock Star, who just returned from a third World Tour, due to the untimely attack on his life, and the subsequent demise of the Obsessed Fan, doing the attacking, so it would fit he had an Imbalance of Emotion. Sheesh, first day I had this EP, too. creeped me out a little, because much of this was the story I wrote up about what was happening, too. It was like the game somehow knew . . . Oi.  LOL 

At any rate he sought a cure, of course, can't see him posing for magazine photos or even being seen in public for a concert. Gross, open sores all over his face, chest, arms . . . His skin was clear, and he was declared cured by the Naturopath. Later that evening, he developed what looked to be mounds of ash covering his face, chest and arms. Pretty frightening looking. He's wisely (hahaha) trying to stay away from his pregnant wife and five children at the moment.

This has all but ground my save to a halt. And while I do like the idea of it, I should have realized that a Naturopath wasn't a benign being, think Sociopath, Psychopath. Yikes. He has 2-3 days left of this Void of Emotion Ailment. Yikes.

This whole mess bugged me so much that I made a mod to fix it. It's now available on CurseForge ("Better Balance" by flauschtrud).

The mod tones down the sudden balance decreases so that intense emotions like Hysterical, Enraged or Mortified or life events like losing a family member do not instantly make a Sim very imbalanced. This should also reduce the frequency of ailments (a little).

And for anyone interested, I also made a mod to remove the ailment visuals (called "No ailment visuals" on CurseForge).

Would be great to get some feedback especially on the balance mod!

Ok, now my Sim's mother died and this also caused an instant drop of the balance from the very top to the very bottom (of course with a new ailment...).

Again, nothing to do about that from the player's perspective and no relation to overall mood because his emotion was still happy because of other moodlets...

He should become gradually imbalanced when he stays in a sad (or other negative) mood for longer, but waking up being very imbalanced with a new ailment, while still being happy makes no sense at all.

Maybe if a Sim could get an aliment once a season? That seems more manageable. Either paying, waiting out or curing yourself seasonally—doesn't seem too extreme.