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Theideasguy's avatar
Theideasguy
Seasoned Newcomer
1 day ago

Major quality of life changes for base game and between packs for occult sims

The sims history, right back to its creation has always served as a champion of inclusion for people all around the world, resonating with so many from every walk of life. Personally I think that has always been one of the best qualities of the game... so I'm not sure how to segway into this thought process but don't worry it's nothing serious. 

I've been replaying the sims 4 pack by pack over the last year and it's been great so far, but it's left me with a lot of ideas both big and small that I really do think the game could use to enhance player experience. 

My first thought involves two traits, two/three aspirations, and a job, as well as preferences. The traits would be "occult fanatic" and "fear of the unknown" or "occultic fear". 

For the base game this would apply to ghosts, potentially plant sims, and maybe the grim reaper. Those with these traits would gain unique interactions with average sims as well as the above mentioned "occult sims", and some positive or negative moodlets from being around occult sims as well as a sim with a shared trait. Also maybe fainting from excitement occasionally when in the presence of the unknown (like when around a famous sim) or running off in terror.

Two of the aspirations would align with the traits, one being popularity based where you'd specifically want to befriend occult sims, and have a reward where you can instantly befriend any occult sim. I also think one of the final steps would involve becoming some form of occult sim yourself. For base game this would be becoming a ghost, but would be left open ended so that later packs can still cross this off.

The second aspiration would be deviance where you actively want to make occult sims lives worse. The trait gained would be being able to kick an occult sim off of any property they do not own that you are currently on.

The third aspiration would be tied into the new career. This isn't an on location job, and one that would tie into logic in the beginning and would be some form of researcher, where you start off as some local fanatic and progress until you hit the career branch: Hunter or worshiper (could also be called fanatic researcher or whatever).

The Hunter would require the fitness skill ontop of logic and possibly after reaching the highest rank your sim would be able to banish spirits or something. Which would also allow you to remove ghost sims from base game without deleting them. Letting them peacefully pass onto the spirit realm.

I'd say the other branch could potentially do the opposite, having the power to transform any sim into a ghost, and add focus on mischief as a requirement.

The aspiration would be tied to the career regardless of branch and would focus on logic and research while being found under the knowledge tab. I'd also say this should add new interactions to the computer for logic based occult research and maybe a new book or two. I'd also say a new skill but this whole post already feels like a pipe dream and a major overhaul without adding a new skill to be applied ontop of everything else. 

I think Hunters should also be able to spar with every sim and gain the "fight occult" interaction when dealing with any occult sim including the grim reaper himself, because going toe to toe with the reaper just because, is a funny interaction. Winning the fight could even leave you with a "petty curse" moodlet where your sim is more likely to die in an accident for a day. While losing could lead to you pleading for your soul or just being reaped, cause only an idiot picks a fight with death himself. 

Where this gets complicated is as packs get added this would of course add new interactions. Although the career should be based around the supernatural from the beginning replacing the word ghosts in all descriptions with "monsters" and the "the supernatural".

This is where preferences come into play. Its always felt weird to me that you can confess having a fear of vampires, or debate their existence, get negative or positive moodlets from interacting with aliens, and so on, but never actually have any say in how your sim feels about each type of occult.  For example I feel like I should be able to have a sim be neutral on spell casters, dislike vampires and ghosts, and love aliens and mermaids. 

The reason this feels more complicated is because of how accepting the sims is to everyone from all walks of life, but feels more practical to have a kid or even an old man who was abducted once gain a fear or dislike towards some form of the occult. I often feel like the sims is the perfect narrative game as you write your own story. The reason all this feels right to me, is that if you add count Dracula to your game to be the evil lord over all vampires, sims should be able to not only have reactions both for and against it, but also have a Van Helsing to fight against all monsters of the night in a humorous way that keeps the T for teen rating. 

Occult sims could then be found in likes and dislikes, and could lead to beautiful player story telling as you make generations of werewolves and vampires fight only to have a Romeo and Juliette story form between a pair that see past their differences. 

 

If all that is a pipe dream I wish could come true my second overhaul would be a next to impossible coding nightmare that I'd still love to see.

No clue how it would be implemented gameplay wise so I'll be spit balling from here out. 

Put plain and simple I think the game needs hybrids. 

Hybrids would be their own occult classification, taking two attributes from their parents. For example spell casters and vampires could result in a sim who upon adulthood ages slower and gains some vampiric abilities at a slower rate due to their mixed blood, but could also sling spells. Alien hybrids would result in a baby that looks like an alien and has the interactions but can transform into dark form, mermaid,  etcetera, but no longer had a disguise. 

I have no doubt this would be a coding nightmare and probably next to impossible to implement between packs. Nevertheless even if I think it's impossible I think hybrids would add an unbelievable amount to the game.

 

TLDR: better base game occult implementation that expands slightly with packs, and hybrids.

 

 

1 Reply

  • Better occult interactions and gameplay I'd want for sure!

    But Mystical/Skeptical start to achieve Occult Fan/Non-Occult Fan feel but only minorly.

    I have their break down in the links.

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