Occult Refresh!
I am a big fan of playing with occults in The Sims 4. Prior to the Werewolves pack release, I did think a lot of the occults seemed unfinished in ways. After the release of Werewolves, I got to see just how detailed The Sims team can get with occult types, and I believe they should take a step back and revisit the occults that were released before Werewolves to give them new features.
Occult Children
It is important to know beforehand that when I refer to children, I am talking about all sims from the lifestage newborn to child. One aspect of the Werewolf pack that I enjoy is seeing Werewolf children present with behaviors that coincide with them becoming full blown Werewolves as teens: newborns will howl when they cry, infants get grumpy during the full moon, toddlers chew on their toys like little dogs, and child sims will get moodlets like “beastly growth spurt” or moodlets pertaining to their fangs growing in.
I think having features across all occults to give their children unique behaviors would be a worthwhile addition to the game. Some ideas could include: mermaid toddlers babbling to fish to gain social skills, or mermaid children getting strong mood buffs from swimming in bodies of water. For vampires: I think it would be cool if the kids had sun sensitivity, maybe getting a tense moodlet for being out in the sun. I know this would be scary, but maybe vampire infants could hiss at you if you make them mad. For Spellcasters: I think it would be absolutely adorable if infant or toddler spell casters would randomly sneeze and accidentally teleport around the lot from it. The little babies have no control over their powers and it would be cute if they did it in front of their parents and the parent got a moodlet like “where did they go??” from teleporting. Child spell casters could have the opportunity to practice some junior spells, like a spell that completes their homework or something. And finally, for Alien children: it would be cute if they could practice their abilities to scan other sims’ minds.
The Needs UI
This is specifically for Mermaids and Aliens. All the other occults have a unique UI catered to them in their needs section, but Mermaids and Aliens have the same as human sims. I do understand that the other occults have abilities that are tracked as overcharges of power, and maybe with some brainstorming from The Sims team, they could develop some more powers for Mermaids and Aliens that could call for that unique UI.
Overall, I think it is important for the sims team to take a step back and look into prior features, and bugs in gameplay mechanics to improve the quality of gameplay for consumers before rolling out new content. The community has been requesting for The Sims teams to look into numerous bugs and glitches for a while now, but it seems like those pleads get ignored in favor of new content. I do hope that if any member of The Sims team reads this, to think about reevaluating prior content that has been released and making tunes and adjustments to make a better playing experience for the community.
