How to make sims 4 more challenging
In a recent livestream the sims team asked us to give suggestions that create challenge In the game. I know they also said we would have a chance to express are opinions on the 19th but I'm super inpatient so I'm gonna share some of what I think here just to get it out.😅
Money: it's way to easy to obtain massive amounts of money in the sims. advancing in careers is way to easy and skills like painting, flower arranging, etc can give you tons of money specifically at level 10. This wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so easy to level up skills either. We also Don't have a lot of things to spend this money on. Bills have gotten a lot better but other then that sims don't have big purchases they need to make. University could have been one but its way to cheap(at least from a American standpoint). TANGENT: If we had cars that could add a big expense. The sims team could make it so you needed to pay for a taxi to travel if you don't have a car.the taxi would also take some time to arrive. Anyways items in the catalog are also weirdly priced. For example in eco lifestyle wind turbines and solar panels should be worth a lot more.
Relationships: it's way to easy to form relationships with townies. I could introduce myself to a sim and in the same day get married to them and have a baby. This ties in with money because it's is super easy to marry a rich sim and take their money on the first day of playing. Another thing is everybody seems to always like your sim. For example even if you sim is a serial romantic and has left a string of broken hearts behind them townies still want a relationship. If we had a reputation system for everyday sims not just famous ones it would fix this. It would also be nice if sims could just not like you. Like if you have complete opposite traits you could start out with a negative relationship. Like a evil sim and a good sim. It should also be harder to gain relationship with them in general. Another thing is sims Don't have a lot of personality. Every sim more or less feels the same. The player usually has to fully guide gameplay in terms of a sims personality. I love that the sims is a sandbox and we can do pretty much anything but it would be nice to have some guidance as to what my sims wants based on their personality. Revamping whims would help. It would be nice if my sims could have whims tied to their aspiration and traits. They could also have some gameplay changing whims like divorce spouse, move house, have a baby, etc. Also bringing back wants and fears would really help. It would also be nice to bring back mental break downs from sims 2.
unpredictability: If you've ever played the sims 4 you know that it can get a little stale at times. of course we go back eventually but it's more or less a never ending cycle of getting bored and coming back. I think this has to do with the fact that the sims 4 sims always have to be managed. Everything is exactly to the players design. It gets kinda boring when everything is your way. It would be nice to have unexpected events pop up that change your plans and you have to work around them.
A example of small unexpected events could be burglers, sims get sick(I know we already have this but it doesn't happen as often as I would like), acne(teens get it randomly and feel embarrassed instead of just puttingit on in cas), getting arrested breaking curfew or vandalism, etc
Bigger unexpected events could be meteors killing your sim, losing your job from picking the wrong option during a random work event, affairs, job relocation, significant other breaking up with you, etc.
Of course there could be a option to turn these off for those who want full control in order to tell stories. If we had this a long with story progression and lore the sims world could feel so alive.
Consequences: I went into this a little with relationships but I'm specifically talking about consequences outside of just relationships. Some examples of bad things your sims can do with no consequences are try for a baby with a sim and then just completely forget about the child, vandalism(city living), getting into fights, streaking, taking plasma from another sim(vampires), stealing, etc. In the first case I think some kind of child support could help and with the others just require a sim being able to call the police. Police already exist from get to work. It's to bad that some of the scenarios in that career aren't in base game.
Extra: another thing to add is the sims team has been adding a lot of gift giving in the sims. From dust bunnies, rabbits and birds. I like this but the items being given are worth to much. We also Don't have enough to do for each lifestage. We have way more for young adults. Especially young adult females. It would be nice if other lifestates could be added on to. *cough generations and babies *cough
Most of this is just wishful thinking though and I definitely don't expect most of these to actually happen.
