Regarding No Shoes Indoors

@SqueamishNerd You can just place a shoe rack. That has the same functionality.

But yeah, do think it's pack specific

Hi!

I agree with the "no shoes" sign, that is quite american-centric. I think an ability to set shoes vs no shoes on the front door would be a good option. Its not a huge issue tho as I think we can just hide the sign.

As for the mischevious child thing I disagree. I was a bit of a rebel when I was younger, and I was scolded a lot, both for wearing outdoor shoes inside the school and for running outside in white socks. Many children can come running inside and be on their way to bring snow or dirt in the whole house if their parents dont stop them. 

Its often easy to become lazy if youre already put your shoes on (especially winter boots) and you forgot your keys or something and then you try to walk on your tippy toes to get it even though that does not help. Maybe they should make sims with the lazy trait not always take their shoes off.

Im norwegian, so the cultural norms on why we take off our shoes may be different? We dont wear shoes inside at homes (we have shoe racks and mats by the front door) which is culturally because of the weather making our shoes quite dirty. In schools, offices, gyms, we wear loafers,(indoor shoes in gyms) or socks. Also in some non-city restaurants, hotels or libraries and other common areas. Even at parties we take our shoes off, and if someone were to wear high heels at a party they would bring them with (not normal to wear heels at a normal house party though).

A funny thing I noticed. If you search wearing shoes inside in norwegian everything that comes up is "why do americans wear shoes inside?" 

@crinrictIt's nice that there's at least the possibility to add a shoe rack instead of a sign, but I personally find the shoe racks weird for a few different reasons.

There are two types of shoe racks, one with stereotypical female shoes and one with stereotypical male shoes, there's none with both stereotypically female shoes and stereotypically male shoes on the same rack, and there's no empty one (which would be the best option imo, because then there wouldn't be shoes that don't look like what my sims would be wearing).

The shoe racks also have a variety of shoes, with a bunch of party shoes and formal shoes, which is something most people don't store in the hallway, in my experience from being in people's homes here in Sweden. Here people store only everyday shoes (which varies over the year, winter boots are put away in the summer, summer shoes are put away in the winter, and so on) in the hallway, while shoes for special occasions (party shoes, formal shoes etc) are stored in the wardrobe or suchlike.

Another thing is that the shoe racks look weirdly small (narrow). I feel like most IRL shoe racks fit eight pairs of shoes, while the ones in TS4 only fit six pairs of shoes. I feel like only a person who lives alone would buy a shoe rack that fits six pairs of shoes.

Edit: Forgot to mention. The reason why I think it's weird that the shoe rules are in a pack inspired by Japan is that it makes the base game feel even more American, since not only Japanese people take off their shoes indoors.

@Susannembryhni  It would make a lot of sense to have lazy sims not always taking off their shoes indoors. To me it makes more sense than children having shoes indoors as a way of being defiant or mischievous. I would love to see lazy sims not following the "no shoes" rule (or maybe taking off their shoes without putting on slippers when the shoe rule is set to change into slippers indoors), and child sims not putting on their shoes when going outdoors. Children going outdoors without shoes could get a playful moodlet at first and then after a while, depending on the weather, they could get an uncomfortable moodlet ("Ugh, my feet are wet.", "Ouch, I stepped on something sharp!", "Hot pavement!", "Cold feet!" etc).

The biggest cultural difference I see in your description of how and where to take off shoes indoors in Norway is that in Sweden we don't wear loafers indoors, we often wear sandal-like slippers indoors, like the ones called Birkenstock Arizona or the ones called Ecco Cozmo. In homes people wear just their socks or some kinds of slippers, while in schools and offices we wear the sandal-like slippers, though a few people wear Crocs or non-sandal-like slippers. I wish we could set what types of slippers sims should change into when the shoe rule is set to wear slippers indoors.

I found this map of taking shoes off (green) and keeping shoes on (blue) indoors. This map shows an average per country (that's why, for example, Hawaii is shown to keep shoes on, because they're a part of the US).

The shoe rule was added to a pack inspired by Japan. Doing that made the base game feel even more American, to me and to many others. I feel like this map might give a good representation of why it feels that way.