@SqueamishNerd , TS2 is by far my favorite version of the Sims, so while I've seen these 2 videos in the past, I didn't even need to be sold on how much better TS2's gameplay is. 🥳 After TS2, I felt that TS3 felt rather empty ☹️ (though the level of customization in TS3 cant' be beat! 🙌 ) I do agree that TS4's personality system is lacking, as 3 traits for adults just isn't enough to make them feel different, and don't even get me started on how children feel the same unless you have one that is evil or mean. 😞 That said, one of my favorite things i love about TS4 is it's ability to multi-task! ❤️ I also love the graphics, CAS, and Build/Buy Mode, as well as the ability to live drag various small objects such as plates to the sink or trash. (One of my least favorite things about TS2 was that there were so many baby bottles everywhere that your Sim had to throw away one by one! 😞 )
However, I have had Playful Sims that play with toys and they love to play with the doll house even if the children aren't around.🥳 So, unless that is a more recent Bug, they should be playing with toys like the ones in the toy box and the dollhouse!🤔
@CircuitD and @Player_jp5s5eav , I like the moodlet system in TS4, but I don't like that it is at the expense of personality. Most personality traits are tied to moods and whims and not behavior. I had once seen a video testing Sims on what drives Sims behavior, and it is mostly what you have already directed them to do. So a music loving Sim straight out of CAS probably has as much chance picking up that guitar as a bookworm Sim or an athletic Sim. But once you direct them to an instrument a couple of times and they have some skill in that area, they will be more likely to do that behavior (even behavior that isn't tied to their personality.) However, musical Sims will have whims more often tied to their love of music, and they can get special buffs from doing musical stuff. It is a slightly different way of playing, and it isn't bad, even if it isn't as realistic as personality being the driving force of behavior. That said I think most people prefer more realistic behavior (meaning behavior that is driven by personality and not just mood or what you've had them do before).
I agree, but unfortunately Nap destroyed even the trait preferences since now a music nap will make all sim grab a violin and active nap will make even a couch potato exercise. Yes you can turn them off, which is a solution to all sim bad creations. And even if it will have a small impact it’s just barely noticeable (playing the guitar will make any sim happy no matter the trait) The game has introduced scared emotion which to me is a great addition and much needed. I don’t need the detail of grabbing a knife from a draw if all those details will slow the game. But, they are crucial animation deficiencies in this game that simply make game play boring. In order to make creating stories and gameplay interesting you need the negative drama. Without that they are just happy clones. My issue is that the game adds negative sentiments and maybe negative lifestyle (don’t get me started on how badly both were designed. I especially have a problem with people person, which is assigned anytime a sim interacts with more then 1-2 sims a day, which in large families and active careers just gets slapped on without legitimate reason). I get negative sentiments without having any animation that would suggest why it happened. Items are just spawning in inventory or get purchased on the computer. That is not game play. Having to watch your sim on a computer is not game play. When something negative happens you just get that sad emotion which is standard for every sim and then has no impact in long term and minimal short term. No matter the trait, circumstance, relationship status the response is alway the same. Reputations are good or bad which basically sums up game play. And at the culmination of it all is lack of animations. In previous sims versions when a sim had an enemy you’d know it. They would occasionally come over and kick a garbage can, you’d get nasty mail, flaming poop, they spontaneously argue if they ran into each other and it was not overwhelming. This game introduces any animation and it gets overloaded to a point it’s more frustrating then fun. Vending machines are always stuck, Murphy bed kill at an alarming rate, thinking of family member is constant. There is no subtlety in the existing animations and positivity overwhelms this game . And, drama is simply missing. Relationships, reputation as limited as they are exist in a panel blurb. That is it. My sim visited her parents and wanted to bake some cookies and got thrown out like a stranger. So what is the point of a family tree or relationships in general if they don’t impact, change or create diversity in game play? When a sim gets caught cheating they get a color. Animation wise nothing really happens or very little. There is no slapping, running away, screaming, very little arguing and it really no different if they would be arguing with a stranger. Actually if the other cheater was a friend they might even remain one and there is no interaction where you can confront the friend. There is no reciprocity. You can’t kick a sim out of the house, ask them to move out. Instead you have to go to narrator mode, breaking any story creation and have the sim removed from the household and moved into another like a piece of furniture in build mode. There are no likes (except drinks I guess), no dislikes, attractions. There is very little diversity in behavior, reputation are sadly nearly missing, traits have little impact, animations are lacking and no reciprocity is provided. You can have a kleptomaniac but can’t catch one stealing. You can ask to represent as an attorney, but after finding our career can’t ask to be represented and this lack of reciprocity is very common. A cop can arrest someone, but a sim can’t be arrested. You can’t introduce one sim to another (this was an interaction available in previous sims), you can’t just hang out. Groups have little activity they will do together. They just scatter all the time. And in most times the animation is missing, but instead you get a color. Every relationship level or title, exists in a profile panel only.
