Please Add Difficulty Options for Infants & Relationship Satisfaction

Dear The Sims 4 team,

I am writing to share my disappointment with the recent changes to Infant gameplay and romantic relationship satisfaction. These systems used to add meaningful depth, realism, and storytelling opportunities to the game, and I would love to see that depth preserved as an option.

Infants

Before the changes, caring for an Infant felt like a genuine stage of family life. Infants required constant attention, their sleep was interrupted, and parents had to balance childcare with their own needs. As the Infant developed, they gradually unlocked new Milestones, including Slept Through the Night, which made sleeping through the night feel like a meaningful developmental achievement rather than something available from the very beginning.

I particularly enjoyed playing as a single mother because these mechanics created meaningful challenges and posed many difficulties for the parent. The gradual progression was the whole point: the early days of the game were demanding, but things became easier as the child grew.

Now that infants can lie in their cribs all day and explore new Milestones on their own without any help, sleep for long stretches right from the start, and require nothing more than periodic feeding and washing, Infants feel far less engaging. I understand that some players prefer a more relaxed experience, but others genuinely enjoy the challenge and realism.

Romantic relationship satisfaction

I also loved the original relationship satisfaction system. Satisfaction could differ between partners, decline when relationships were neglected, and be affected by repeated conflicts or incompatible preferences. In extreme cases, relationships could deteriorate to the point of a breakup.

This made relationships feel dynamic and gave players meaningful consequences for their Sims' choices. With the current slower decline, even couples who repeatedly argue, have completely negative relationship bars and view each other as enemies can remain satisfied can remain relatively satisfied. A single minor romantic interaction is enough to make a couple completely satisfied, even if they had spent the previous few days doing nothing but arguing and shouting at one anothe This makes the satisfaction system feel much less meaningful.

My suggestion

Please consider introducing optional gameplay settings for these systems.

For Infants, players could choose between the current streamlined experience and the previous, more gradual and complex developmental progression.

For relationship satisfaction, players could choose different rates of satisfaction decay, including the more challenging original experience.

This would allow everyone to play the way they enjoy without removing meaningful gameplay from those who prefer a more challenging and realistic simulation.

The Sims has always been special because it allows players to create their own stories. Please give us the freedom to choose not only what stories we tell, but also how challenging and realistic those stories can be.

Thank you for your time and for continuing to develop The Sims 4. I hope you will consider this feedback.