Opening up what reduces the experience

🎯 Short Pitch (Summary)

Freer interactions: reduce predetermined responses, give players more flexibility.
Pause-time awareness: use frequent pauses as a signal of dissatisfaction and adjust system behavior.
Mark Sims of interest: allow players to flag Sims with simplified reactions and less algorithmic interference.
Independent missions: option to keep EA missions separate from player-created areas.
Fewer abandoned saves: add an Undo button and preventive auto-save (configurable).

📋 Extended Feedback (Detailed)

Main Issue

Interactions between Sims feel overly systematized and predetermined, often clashing with the player’s imagination.

This reduces creative freedom.
Gameplay flow is interrupted, sometimes turning the experience into frustration instead of entertainment.
Players often resort to making Sims anti-social to avoid unwanted interactions.

Suggestion: Make interactions more flexible and organic, reducing the gap between player intention and system reaction.

Algorithm Observation

It is unclear whether the game considers pause time as an indicator of hesitation or dissatisfaction.
Suggestion: If not already implemented, the system could adjust automatically when pauses are frequent and lengthy , interpreting them as a sign that the player is 'confused', not satisfied with the current options or the progress that occurred..

Three Key Features 

Mark Sims for Special Interaction
Allow players to flag any Sim (via code or simple UI feature) as “Sim of interest.”
These Sims would have simplified behaviors with less algorithmic interference, avoiding unexpected reactions.
Similar to The Sims 3 “sacred Sim” concept, but more accessible and without implying special status.
Independent Missions
Provide the option to keep EA missions separate from specific areas if the player chooses.
Example: a mission included a dog whose reactions disrupted a carefully crafted environment, leading to abandonment of the save.
Suggestion: Let missions run independently from player-created worlds.
Reduce Abandoned Saves
Many saves are abandoned because the system reacts coldly or contrary to player expectations.
Suggestions:
Add an Undo button to reverse unwanted actions;
Add an "In this state" where you click and easily click to indicate which state you want to return to.
Implement preventive auto-save (configurable in settings) whenever the algorithm proposes a “risky” action.
This would reduce frustration and encourage continuity in gameplay.

Conclusion

These changes would:

Make interactions more natural and creative.
Reduce player frustration.
Lower the rate of abandoned saves, increasing engagement and satisfaction.

Original full message:

Hi! This is the most critical, negative point I see in The Sims 4. I wish the interactions between two Sims were less systematized, generated less friction between what was imagined and what results, and were more free. You simply don't have a filter with consequences in the system, but this wouldn't be necessary if it were less predetermined. Things are so precarious and predetermined, so far from what I need, that for me, several times, the gameplay doesn't flow and has even been a negative experience instead of entertainment. The interaction is so negative, even with positive stimuli, even with social expansions, that the defense mechanism was to make Sims anti-social to avoid this whole part. What is inadequacy in 'virtual reactions'? Reacting in a predetermined way to fit in? Superficial. This has even made me give up on EA purchases before. I don't know if the algorithm uses the player's pause time to understand their mind and behavior, but if it doesn't, it should, because if there's too much frozen time usage, perhaps the system should readjust.

Three other important features:

The ability to mark (either with a typed code or as an easy feature for everyone) any Sim that your imagination as a player "wants to interact with," regardless of the relationship status between characters, so that this Sim doesn't have unexpected/unnecessary behaviors. The Sims 3 had something like marking a Sim as sacred; it would be similar, but without the sense of a special Sim, just an 'algorithm not interfering too much with this Sim, the Sim not having complex reactions.'
Giving the option for EA missions not to merge with a specific area if you choose this option, in the build section or when traveling. A dog was included for a set mission that I participated in. The desired experience didn't accommodate the dog's reactions. Events happen without predictability of when you should save, and saving all the time is annoying, you want to enter the simulation, not the surrounding technology. Another save and the whole carefully crafted set, discontinued, which leads to...
What you need to understand is that there are players who care and feel connected to the system, and when the system reacts coldly to what is expected/imagined or makes the player feel terrible about themselves or their choices, it generates an excess of abandoned saves. Stop to understand the issue of discontinued saves. It's not just about creating, it's about cleaning up. Give the Sims the undo option and you'll see the number of things avoided or differently chosen or inhibited. There are thoughtful players. You genuinely don't always want to save and reopen, so why doesn't the system automatically save (with the option to do so or not in the settings), preventively, every time something 'at risk' is automatically proposed by the algorithm?

Thank you for your attention and consideration.