Emotions and personality overhaul for Sims 4 is NEEDED.

I've been kind of bouncing back and forth between Sims 3 and 4 and whats become very apparent to me (is even with traits) the sims really have no unique personalities in the Sims 4 that make them stand apart from one another.

Personalities can be defined by emotions yes, but its not enough in the Sims 4 (as they work now) and honestly the emotional system is kind of annoying to manipulate especially from a story tellers (point of view) because their emotions are like some crazy roller coaster. Constantly flipping and changing from one state to another within minutes. Happy face, sad face, pouting face, straight face, happy face. Emotional states should last longer then that.

As for traits in the Sims 4, they feel like bonus or handicaps for sims, rather then defining elements of them.

So I read a few other posts and such of people complaining about the emotion system and was thinking of how it could be overhauled at this stage without requiring a complete re-write of coding. As well to keep currently players who are happy with it, happy.

My solution/suggest would be be found in create a sim, in the same way you pick a sims walk style you pick from 3 basic states for your sims emotions. Adding traits that effect their emotions to the below would further make them stand apart.

1. Non-emotional, straight faced. Your sim doesn't react to much and takes a lot to get an emotional reaction out of them.
2. Normal, similar to the current level of Sims emotions as it is now, BUT toned down just slightly so that emotional states last a little longer.
3. Highly emotional. The roller coaster of emotions is back, these sims react fast and furious to outside and inside stimuli.

One thing I'd do regardless is have emotional states last longer and not be so easily effected by player choice so quickly. Right now I get that its needed because they so easily pout, but if you get a sim into an angry mood then he should remain angry for a while. If he's happy then he should be happy for a while. Not insta-click changed. If they are in a happy mood and something slightly bad happens then its a sliding scale of happy. Not insta-pouting.

Speaking of pouting, wow like are all these sims so fragile as one single wrong choice makes them feel bad and pout about it? Like seriously do they need to express their feelings like they are talking to a therapist over every little thing that happens to them? Talk about easily triggered - except that COULD be a trait you could add. Honestly this is really the whole emotional system right now, they are SO easily triggered between emotional states that its often times annoying and more so removes any type of personality when all Sims are governed by the same system.

I also feel more needs to be done to define personalities and contrast between sims, which could relate to relationship stuff such as compatibility or heck even zodiac signs like in past sims.

I don't know if they'd bother tweaking it at this time, emotions but if they plan to keep supporting it into the next few years I feel this system needs an upgrade of polish. Especially if they want to keep evolving it like other service games do.

Felicity_Bane
5 years ago
"TOLKIEN;c-17379814" wrote:
I suppose if you wanted to play devils advocate, the designers might hold this emotional system in high regard and can't imagine changing it. I remember back a couple years during a developers conference, the Sims 4 team presented how they developed the emotion system (as a big achievement) to other developers and very proud of it.

I'll agree it was an accomplishment, but its also become very clear that more then emotions are needed to simulate a sim as unique.

Most definitely. Emotions are not personality. I wish they would focus on giving the sims personalities. Emotions aren't new, anyway. Sims 2 and Sims 3 had deeper emotional systems, with their individual traits influencing their reactions so much more. And I'd argue that Sims 2 memory system added an additional depth that Sims 3 couldn't quite reach.

What's baffling to me is how a few basic emotions have been left out of Sims 4 completely that were in previous games. In Sims 3, if your sim got scared, you certainly knew it from their reaction -- no shiny UI icon needed.
astridentanja
5 years ago
"TOLKIEN;c-17379814" wrote:
I suppose if you wanted to play devils advocate, the designers might hold this emotional system in high regard and can't imagine changing it. I remember back a couple years during a developers conference, the Sims 4 team presented how they developed the emotion system (as a big achievement) to other developers and very proud of it.

I'll agree it was an accomplishment, but its also become very clear that more then emotions are needed to simulate a sim as unique.

It would have been an accomplishment if they wouldn’t have tied them to objects and if traits in any way would have had an influence. The way they’ve done it however was awkwardly one dimensional and simple.
TeaAddictYT
5 years ago
"TOLKIEN;d-971554" wrote:

Personalities can be defined by emotions yes, but its not enough in the Sims 4 (as they work now) and honestly the emotional system is kind of annoying to manipulate especially from a story tellers (point of view) because their emotions are like some crazy roller coaster. Constantly flipping and changing from one state to another within minutes. Happy face, sad face, pouting face, straight face, happy face. Emotional states should last longer then that.

As for traits in the Sims 4, they feel like bonus or handicaps for sims, rather then defining elements of them.

Preach ***raises hands***

I like your suggestions. Some people IRL are actual emotional potatoes and others are basket-cases, and it would be good to see that in-game.

I agree in that I don't think they could ever do away with the emotions system, but it can and should be expanded upon and enhanced, made more realistic (by having more negative emotions, for one thing), and personalities should be deeper in terms of autonomy tuning, and potential interactions in the game.

If I have a music Sim, and they are sad, I don't want their sadness whim to be "call the sadness hotline", I want it to be "play out feelings on the piano" or something like that. "Sing a sad song" maybe. Or if they are an environmentalist, they should want to "go for a walk in nature" to cheer themselves up. If they love to swim, they should want to take a trip to the beach. I do have some very useful mods for making the emotions system more realistic, but it would be nice if those mods were to become obsolete.

Traits in the game don't go deep enough... And thats where I feel an interests system should be implemented so they actually have things they like to do and to talk about, and things they dont like to to or talk about. And their interests can play into the emotions system - at it's most basic, doing things they like makes them happy and doing things they don't like makes them sad or angry. Boom.

They could also add emotional intelligence to the game, as a "character value" like those they added in Parenthood. So Sims who grew up with poor emotional intelligence are more likely to get angry, act out, fight, be mean, and kind of "reinforce" their bad mood if they have a negative moodlet or two, whereas Sims with higher emotional intelligence may be more likely to deal with their negative emotions in a healthy way by seeking to change their mood, engage in hobbies or connect with friends / loved ones. Could be cool? Or I guess they could use the "empathy" wheel we already have, that could almost work.

**Edit - they could also improve their emotional intelligence as adults by having to go to therapy, or read books or something??**

Personalityyyyyyyyyyyyyy please.

"Sk8rblaze;c-17379643" wrote:
I’m convinced they haven’t adjusted emotions after six years of this game because this is how they envision and intend the emotion system to work. And, personally, I think it’s a big flop of a system.

My Sims from The Sims 2 are far more intelligent, expressive, and believable than these Sims. It’s far more fun to interact with them and tell their stories. And I actually feel they develop their personalities as I play with them more throughout their whole lifespan.

Really, that’s what I look for the most in a Sims game aside from accruing wealth and success from my Sims. A ever-changing personality system which realistically portrays diverse Sims, adapting to how I direct their lives.

Yep, and that's because they actually have things that they want, and DON'T want. You can tell "their" stories rather than telling "your" story, if that makes sense. They actually have a personality. And of course, you can still tell "your" story if you want to, if you make their personality suit. The system was much more robust, and had much greater replayability, because everything had impact, meaning, and could turn out differently time and time again.

I've seen a lot of players say they get bored of The Sims 4, or while playing it, quite easily. I feel that the lack of character depth is partially to blame for that, and should be addressed before the devs try to add more vacation destinations or resort running or whatever else they want to do. Less fluff, more meat please!
gamertherapy
5 years ago
Great reading all these perspectives. Yes, the insane over-emotional quick changes are unsettling. Makes the Sims seem like creepy fleshsuit androids with a hitch in the get-along. "Thank You For Riding JohhnyCab!"
thecatsred
5 years ago
I have a sim who is meant to have a stone face until he smiles, which scares most everyone away. However he's constantly smiling and never looks intimidating, so like... what was the point of him.
anthonydyer
Seasoned Traveler
5 years ago
I've always been frustrated with the emotion system. My speculation is there was such an emphasis on emotions that everything else got neglected. I think sims 3 has a really good trait system going. It makes each sim distinct. I noticed that in TS3, traits influence behaviors. In ts4, traits merely effect emotions. I also find that ts4 traits are way too general. In the short run, ts4 needs more traits.

In the long run (TS5), I would like to see a hybrid between TS3 and TS4. There should be some kind of emotion system going on, but I think it needs to be scaled back somewhat. Bring personalities forward.
OldeSimsFan
New Traveler
5 years ago
Eveyone, regardless of personality type, has emotions. They are not the core but the response to what is happening and come out of the personality. A stoic is going to respond differently to a given stimulus than someone who is exciteable. Personality for sims should be done more like TS2 does it, with layers of factors, not just 3 on or off 'traits'. Traits should have ranges/degrees of presence, not just yes or no. People are complex creatures, and sims should mirror that, not be ambulatory shells utterly dependent on objects.
SimsLovinLycan
5 years ago
I like the idea of being able to decide how stoic or emotional your sim is in CAS! I'd like to suggest maybe a slider for that, like the TS2 personality sliders as another way it could be handled.

I'm also in favor of making negative emotions stronger and either toning down the strength or capping the amount of Happy moodlets your sim can get from environmental sources, or having Uncomfortable enhance other negative emotions like Happy enhances the positive ones to balance out the system between the two types of emotions. Positive emotions, on the whole, just have too much power in this game, even for sims with traits that predispose them to getting random negative moodlets like Hotheaded and Gloomy.
clk1143
5 years ago
"Sk8rblaze;c-17379643" wrote:
I’m convinced they haven’t adjusted emotions after six years of this game because this is how they envision and intend the emotion system to work. And, personally, I think it’s a big flop of a system.

My Sims from The Sims 2 are far more intelligent, expressive, and believable than these Sims. It’s far more fun to interact with them and tell their stories. And I actually feel they develop their personalities as I play with them more throughout their whole lifespan.

Really, that’s what I look for the most in a Sims game aside from accruing wealth and success from my Sims. A ever-changing personality system which realistically portrays diverse Sims, adapting to how I direct their lives.

Yup sims2 had more emotions and individuality it seemed like to me as well. I still play sims2 because I do at times miss making the stories part of the sims. It's also a big reason why sims3 wasn't one of my favorites of the series.
x4m1r4
5 years ago
We've been talking about this for ages! I don't understand why this is not in their top priority list. TBH, I could wait for another pack to be released as long as the personality, emotion, etc. are going to be overhauled. Sometimes, I nearly run out of my patience. What do they mean by play with life? Are they suggesting that the Sims just needs to be obedient & follow our rules, like, "Hey, this is your SO, just live with him/her & let me continue with your legacy..." or "Hey Sims, just wear this because this colour & style suits you well"

How I wish that the interaction between Simmers & their Sims are more dynamic instead of one way. I'm not surprised why my Sims standing still most of the times. They are going to rebel! :s