Traits Alone Can Never Represent Personality

@Anonymous , yes, as someone who has played both TS1 and TS2 that used that system for personality, I certainly agree that it has many advantages!👍  They changed how personality works with TS3 , I think in order to give some unique and quirky personality traits , such as unflirty or afraid of water.  But in TS3 we were able to choose 5 traits, which meant that we could add a couple unique ones like what I mentioned , plus add the more personality-defining ones like Neat, Lazy, Outgoing, etc. 😎

But with TS4, we only get 3 slots, which isn't enough for a well rounded personality for an adult. 😢 This lack of trait slots shows the problem with the newer system introduced in TS3.  
I think the main defining personality of any Sim in TS4 is their Aspiration.  But Aspiration doesn't seem to drive their behavior or moodlets the way the traits sometimes do. ☹️ A Sims who is a Collector doesn't autonomously go out and start digging up rocks and searching for frogs. It is more of a guideline for us to shape their lives. Which is ok but not really defining our Sims' personalities in the way it should!  But because of TS3's use of 2 extra slots , it wasn't as much of a problem as it is in TS4.  And let's not even dwell upon how one-dimensional children Sims are in TS4! 😣

The thing is,  is that it any changes to this system most likely wouldn't happen in TS4.  That would be too extensive of an overhaul.  Hopefully the personality sliders will make a return if and when there is a TS5!  (or at the very least add more personality slots).  Or even better, have the sliders, but also have a few personality slots for those quirky traits, like clumsy, unflirty, etc.! 😄

I'm adding my "Me Too" to this topic! ❤

Very well said @PugLove888 ! I particularly like your point that aspirations don't really seem to affect what sims to autonomously.

We need several things here:

1. core personality sliders (like sims 1 and 2) that drastically affects AI, motive decay, rates of skill gain, and other things
2. traits are particular quirks of added scripting that affect certain behavior. It's more specific, but less generalized than core personality
3. A high-level aspiration. Think simply popularity, romance, creative, fortune, knowledge, adventurer, etc. These aspirations should drastically affect the Wants and Fears rolled by the sim. It should more or less permanent and a constant driving force in terms of what the sim wants to achieve out of life
4. Lifetime wants. These are the specific checklist goals that the Sims 4 currently calls aspirations. (It's important to note that the Sims 4 conflated lifetime wants with aspirations themselves. They are inherently different. The former are specific goals, the latter drives the wants and fears of the sim.) E.g. renaissance sim, chess master, best selling author would be example of lifetime wants.

@Anonymous , yes I see what you are saying about them conflating Aspirations and Lifetime Wants in the Sims 4.  It has been so long that I forgot that what TS4 calls Aspirations are closer to what TS3 called Lifetime Wants! 😅  

And my favorite system for Lifetime Wants, Aspirations, regular Wants and Fears was TS2!  There were repercussions for your actions.   Sure you could go out for a night on the town, but your Neat Sim might have a crisis if they have to use a dirty public restroom! 😉 
Also, to this day I still think of myself as a combination of Knowledge Sim and Family Sim, with a touch of Grilled Cheese Sim thrown in the mix! 🤣  Classifying Sims according to what is most important to them was a great way of directing our gameplay.  

And I do think having sliders for the main personality characteristics, combined with a few selected traits for those quirky traits that don't drive personality, would be the best of both worlds.🤩  Take the Vegetarian trait in TS4... other than mealtime, this trait does nothing but offer the ability to talk to other people about being a Vegetarian. I know some Vegetarians who almost never pick this trait because with only 3 traits, there isn't much variety to personality left to choose from , which makes all of those Sims seem very similar and is also a kind of a waste of a trait slot.  It is similar for Clumsy Sims.  The animations are funny, but it doesn't carry the same weight as something like Outgoing or Creative or Slob. (Though I am glad they tweaked some of these traits a bit, as it is better than it used to be!💖 )  So by adding the sliders and keeping a few quirky traits , we can still have a few quirky-but-not-as-useful traits without sacrificing core personality points! 🥳

My issue with the traits system is that many of the traits affect a very narrow slice of gameplay... Or even worse, mainly affect dialogue. 
In my opinion, dialogue and food preference -centered traits might well be the worst in the game, especially since if you leave sims with them at their own devices, you will basically see no interactivity connected to them at all.

Vegetarian? They might make vegetarian food... or eat meat-based foods with a displeased look. Or have a plant icon in their dialogue?

Cheerful? They might... not sulk?

Lactose intolerant? Like vegetarian, but with farts.

Outgoing? All sims do anyway is talking or grilling while tapping their phones...

Family oriented, Ambitious, Art lover, Materialist and Snob.... blahh....

Best traits, in my opinion, are the ones that affect what you see when you are not controlling a sim; evil sims cackling at others' misfortune, slobs making a mess, proper sims initiating cute proper interactions, kleptomaniac sims making stuff disappear, romantic sims trying to flirt with everything with a pulse and a driving license, active sims doing push-ups in front of the library... While this is still far away from the kind of a fully fleshed out personality I'd like to see, traits that make sims autonomously act in unique ways and initiate unexpected events are waaaay more fun. 

How could the game be improved, realistically speaking, without overhauling how the overall trait system works

I have loved pondering about this since I find it to be a more likely option than any full overhaul.

- Sims' traits could affect which lots they are the most likely to frequent; loners and book worms ending up in the library, bros and active and adventurous sims hitting the gym, snobs and art lovers visiting museums and so on, making each lot type a place to potentially meet different kinds of people.

- Traits could more directly affect what activities sims prioritize. For now, it seems certain items in the game (televisions, phones, computers, grills and dart boards, especially) call each and any kinds of sims with their siren song to spend however much time with them . Realistic? Perhaps a little too much, ahaha, but also mind-numbingly boring gameplay.

Even if an item has an overall fun value of say, 6, it should not overwrite a sim's core personality in such a way that it almost always goes beyond their favourite hobby with the fun value of 5. Sims with activity-related traits such as active, bookworm, childish, art lover, maker, dance machine, green fiend and goofball should actively choose activities that match what they consider the most fulfilling in life.

- Sims with clashing personality traits that can cause disagreements should spark more and more fiery controversy. The game could tie this to sentiments, even. A pop-up appears, informing us "Phil is outraged by Paula's meat eating habit.", "Donna feels wounded from discovering Karen approves of stealing." "Martha holds a grudge against Jane and her goody-two-shoes moralizing", with an appropriate sentiment added to the parties involved. If their relationships positively develop despite the troubles though, they could perhaps create uniquely meaningful and lasting relatinships.

- Sims with matching personality traits could also spark up unique sentiments or relationships, such has feeling kinship over their unflirtiness, bond over their nature protection interest or sports, or become epic villain pals. Fallings-out from these close bonds could also be more severe than typical, though, sims ending up with hard to shake, severe negative sentiments like "Bro betrayal", "let down by a vegetarian soul sibling" or "it was not the two of us against the world, after all", making their terms hard to reconcile again.

- Sims could gain relationships, skills or needs uniquely fast when engaging with fellow enthusiasts,. A foodie having their social need highly satiated from cooking and dining with family, children of the ocean falling madly in love on the beach, bros really breaking the bank at the gym when training together, and lazy sims putting their napping skills on a turbo charge when napping together with a fellow lazy.

@Anonymous , I certainly agree that this is an important topic to consider for Sims 5 (if there is ever going to be a Sims5) and onward! I hope they take what is good from all versions of the Sims and find a way to make it work, while avoiding what didn't work for each version!  

I love The Sims 4 , but I think one of its biggest negatives is how shallow the personalities are, especially in children! 😢 But even in adults the personalities can be shallow and similar. 
For example, I enjoy families in my game, so I often want to give my Sims one of the Aspirations that go along with that, and I often want to give them the Family Oriented trait to go along with that. Then I might give one of the parents the neat trait (for obvious reasons) and I might give them the creative trait to make some extra income from home by painting as they take care of infants and toddlers.  But then I can't give them a more fun trait to distinguish themselves like clumsy, vegetarian, good, jealous, goofball, etc. And then almost all my families end up having this kind of Sim that is Family Oriented, Neat, & Creative.  I can change it up and give them other personality traits, but the ones I mentioned make for a good stay-at-home parent .  This  is just one example, but I find cases like this with other Sims I make. A couple other favorite traits of mine are Loves the Outdoors and Genius, but I find myself using those way too much.  Certain traits I just like more than others, so I tend to use them more, but with only 3 slots, that doesn't give us a lot of choice, and I find myself having to use traits I don't like very much just for some variety.  While I sometimes choose these less likable traits for stories I create, I don't always play with a story in mind, so I only like using traits like Evil when I'm making a story.  When I'm just playing to relax or try out new gameplay elements, I don't like making evil Sims.  

And to be honest, I found that even the 5 personality trait slots in The Sims 3 would not be enough if I was making Sims based on real people or fictional characters!😅 So only 3 traits is much more frustrating! 😓

Hoping they give us more choices or the old personality sliders for the Sims 5! 

@PugLove888Exactly! You stated the problems with a traits-only system. While the Sims 3's traits had more depth than those in the Sims 4, I found they were still not fundamental enough. The slider/points-system in the Sims 1 and 2 acted as a consistent rubric from which every Sim's behavior and personality were graded. Super important that the Sims 5 has this.

Traits are still important, but they should be more specific and provide extra diversity on top of what the fundamental points/sliders core personality provides.

I really hope this feedback makes its way to the Sims 5 development team.

@Anonymous , yes!😀  We want Sims that have differing personalities and Sims that autonomously behave as their wants and aspirations indicate they should behave as!  If in the next Sims game there is a Cooking/Foodie aspiration or trait, they should be more likely to cook , but less so for those Sims who don't have this aspiration or trait, and even less so for Sims with the Lazy trait, unless they are really hungry!  The Foodie trait would be one of those specialty traits for fun and uniqueness , like the Sims 3 and Sims 4 traits, but Lazy should be on a sliding scale like in Sims 1 and Sims 2! 

Aspirations also drove our Sims in TS2! I think they affected behavior in TS3, but I could be wrong.🤔  But in TS4 the Aspirations don't seem to matter as much as personality traits, as far as I can tell.  I especially see this in children... If I give a child the Creative Aspiration, but not the trait, they seemed to be less likely to have gotten whims to do creative things than the children who had any of the other aspirations but had the Creative trait.😓 I haven't tested long enough with the new Wants/Fears system yet to have noticed if it is any different.  I keep forgetting to test it! 😅

Like you said, I hope the next rendition of the Sims takes all of this in account! 🤞