Best packs for those who play with families?

All the ages that aren't young adult/adult are always neglected in this game sadly. I own all the packs and the game is still very lacking in anything for families. Toddlers, kids, teens and elders are always pretty much ignored. :(

Parenthood is the best one for sure. Seasons also adds stuff that might not specifically be for children, but are good to use with them, like holidays, building snowmen, stuff like that. Toddler stuff adds a few more toddler items that are really needed. Get Together might also be useful if you want to make a club exclusively for children.

After Parenthood I'd say Seasons is the best pack in that sense. The holidays are nice to celebrate with the family and the scout after school activity is very nice.

Besides that and the Kids/Toddler stuff packs, there's nothing really. We are in a desperate need for a Generations pack.

"Wallsisms4ever;c-17369350" wrote:
After Parenthood I'd say Seasons is the best pack in that sense. The holidays are nice to celebrate with the family and the scout after school activity is very nice.

Besides that and the Kids/Toddler stuff packs, there's nothing really. We are in a desperate need for a Generations pack.

agreed

"Wallsisms4ever;c-17369350" wrote:
After Parenthood I'd say Seasons is the best pack in that sense. The holidays are nice to celebrate with the family and the scout after school activity is very nice.

Besides that and the Kids/Toddler stuff packs, there's nothing really. We are in a desperate need for a Generations pack.

Also loved generations, I really hope the next pack is actually something for kids and toddlers. Well I would like fairys in the game too lol but I'm a very family based player, but then get bored of sims eventually as there isnt much you can do with them. Getting children to be friends is so tedious too with the limited social options. And old people I get bored with, I'll probably get the knitting pack thats been voted mainly for them.

The ideas i have for more expanded gameplay for children..

A rivalry/bad blood system.
a favoritism system with the potential to lead to bad blood.
a system where bad blood turns into outright animosity where things are irrepairably damaged with no way to fix it.

New dynamics between parents step-parents and foster parents and their children as well as step children and foster children, nieces and nephews and cousins. it makes the relationships more complex. the adoption system needs to be completely replaced, so foster children aren't seen as natural born children.

For example a father of two boys marries a young pretty adult female sim, but she has no idea about children. One of the sons takes to her immediately and the other resents her presence in the house and her lavishing attention on the boys father and brother. He immediately considers her a rival and wants nothing to do with her, so the boy willfully acts up because he wants to in order to keep her away from him and kick up such a fuss to get the father and brother to notice him again. This rivalry will remain throughout the sims lives until it is is sorted out or made worse, in either case the effects are permanent on the relationship dynamic.

The opposite is also true that one son that took to his step-mother immediately will want to learn from her, trust her, show loving emotions towards her regularly like she is the boys natural mother, over time the boy becomes incresingly more receptive to her requests and won't kick up any fuss, so all the usual problems you'd expect are minimal with a child picking a favorite parent and the child won't show any resistant to being taught values and will happily sit there and listen to everything the step-mother has to teach her step-son.

With favoritism comes jealousy between the boys, where there is jealousy there is bad blood, however it can be avoided if the brothers interact with each other more regularly rather than one of them having all their attention on a favorite parent. The dynamic can be even more complicated if that one boy willfully ignores his brother and it does create a rivalry, and worse he keeps ignoring his brother and becomes an animosity, an unforgivable action that won't be forgotten and so the relationship meter means they can't be anything more than acquaintances at best and outright despised at worst.

Further still if a brother and foster-sister consider each other favorites and do everything together, they don't listen to their parents and wind each other up, it creates a dynamic where the parents consider their own children as rivals until the children and parents learn to communicate with each other, but it can get worse if the parents try to come down on their behaviour by threatening something, which can spiral into animosity. But what happens when the son and foster sister age into teenagers and start seeing interest in each other, in "that way"? Only a legal contract says that girl has a brother, but they are of no relation. So what happens if the parents discover their foster daughter and natural born son have promised themselves to each other?

There is so much potential to find in this that it is just the tip of a large iceberg as far as potential is concerned for TS4, i just wished EA would recognise that and plough a lot more more resources and developers into it.

"Hoverael;c-17369427" wrote:
The ideas i have for more expanded gameplay for children..

A rivalry/bad blood system.
a favoritism system with the potential to lead to bad blood.
a system where bad blood turns into outright animosity where things are irrepairably damaged with no way to fix it.

New dynamics between parents step-parents and foster parents and their children as well as step children and foster children, nieces and nephews and cousins. it makes the relationships more complex. the adoption system needs to be completely replaced, so foster children aren't seen as natural born children.

For example a father of two boys marries a young pretty adult female sim, but she has no idea about children. One of the sons takes to her immediately and the other resents her presence in the house and her lavishing attention on the boys father and brother. He immediately considers her a rival and wants nothing to do with her, so the boy willfully acts up because he wants to in order to keep her away from him and kick up such a fuss to get the father and brother to notice him again. This rivalry will remain throughout the sims lives until it is is sorted out or made worse, in either case the effects are permanent on the relationship dynamic.

The opposite is also true that one son that took to his step-mother immediately will want to learn from her, trust her, show loving emotions towards her regularly like she is the boys natural mother, over time the boy becomes incresingly more receptive to her requests and won't kick up any fuss, so all the usual problems you'd expect are minimal with a child picking a favorite parent and the child won't show any resistant to being taught values and will happily sit there and listen to everything the step-mother has to teach her step-son.

With favoritism comes jealousy between the boys, where there is jealousy there is bad blood, however it can be avoided if the brothers interact with each other more regularly rather than one of them having all their attention on a favorite parent. The dynamic can be even more complicated if that one boy willfully ignores his brother and it does create a rivalry, and worse he keeps ignoring his brother and becomes an animosity, an unforgivable action that won't be forgotten and so the relationship meter means they can't be anything more than acquaintances at best and outright despised at worst.

Further still if a brother and foster-sister consider each other favorites and do everything together, they don't listen to their parents and wind each other up, it creates a dynamic where the parents consider their own children as rivals until the children and parents learn to communicate with each other, but it can get worse if the parents try to come down on their behaviour by threatening something, which can spiral into animosity. But what happens when the son and foster sister age into teenagers and start seeing interest in each other, in "that way"? Only a legal contract says that girl has a brother, but they are of no relation. So what happens if the parents discover their foster daughter and natural born son have promised themselves to each other?

There is so much potential to find in this that it is just the tip of a large iceberg as far as potential is concerned for TS4, i just wished EA would recognise that and plough a lot more more resources and developers into it.

A favouritism/rivalry thing would be interesting. Sometimes children get mood that are angry as they met a sibling they didnt want when a baby is born, it would be interesting if that carried on.

I use Get Together a lot for my families. Kids join homework and outdoors clubs etc. Family Clubs for easily bringing over extended family for a game night etc.

I had also forgotten in-laws. the game doesn't acknowledge sims marrying into a family. the game just says they are a household member.

so a woman marrying into a family through a suitable son (From the parents PoV) in that family, she would be considered to the parents as daughter-in-law, to any natural born siblings as sister-in-law. She'd also show up in the genology window as a member of the family. Same can be said with a male marrying into a family, and he's be son-in-law or brother-in-law.

it would be great if relationships were recognising this as well. it is an oversight that has irked me for some time.

"Hoverael;c-17369548" wrote:
I had also forgotten in-laws. the game doesn't acknowledge sims marrying into a family. the game just says they are a household member.

so a woman marrying into a family through a suitable son (From the parents PoV) in that family, she would be considered to the parents as daughter-in-law, to any natural born siblings as sister-in-law. She'd also show up in the genology window as a member of the family. Same can be said with a male marrying into a family, and he's be son-in-law or brother-in-law.

it would be great if relationships were recognising this as well. it is an oversight that has irked me for some time.

Have you seen the new sims community survey, it's got me sooo hyped. Looks like they are thinking of improving relationships as a whole. Some of the things on it include: more relationships types (bromance was the example but I imagine in laws could come into that), temporary relationships states (furious with sim x), personal history affecting relationships so if they fall out harder to get back together, relationship compatibility so some sims getting along better than others. And sims outside household asking for relationship changes like proposing marriage.
It was a really good survey and asked what previous packs we want polished up. Also asking a lot of winter snow sports questions which I dont care bout lol so I hope that's not what they focus on. Unfortunately the survey still didnt seem to have much family focus which is annoying