Even if the new Parenthood traits didn't make a difference...

I agree. I only got the pack last night and I have really been enjoying it. I am only up to playing with toddlers. I am really looking forward to experiencing the other age groups.

I agree whole heartedly about becoming more invested in my sims. I used to just age babies, children and teens up. So far I am really enjoying the added elements to the toddlers age.

I am looking forward to seeing if the traits make a difference but I agree.. it's the journey not the destination for me at this point.
I'm enjoying the actual kid and teen stages when watching them much more than before. I wanted to and still want to raise a flawed (mad scientist) from baby on up and I guess I'll see how he/she turns out when I settle on which kid to do it with... Hmm maybe more than one.

What is YA? sorry

"joseandchocolate;c-15807530" wrote:
What is YA? sorry

YA= Young Adult (or college student as we used to call em in the sims 2 :lol: )

"Dreamie209;c-15807540" wrote:

"joseandchocolate;c-15807530" wrote:
What is YA? sorry

YA= Young Adult (or college student as we used to call em in the sims 2 :lol: )

Introducing the YA stage separate from something only for university was the greatest thing ts3 ever did for me! I remember being so miffed in ts2 that this brilliant life stage was only available for collegiate sims.

great. now i really want to play college in ts4. thanks lol!

eta:

I agree that it's definitely the journey that makes parenting enjoyable in this pack, but it does feel a bit underwhelming IMHO. I assume that's not a popular opinion, but I hold it nonetheless. I do really enjoy this pack. I just feel like it definitely could have used a bit more to it.

Totally agree. I rarely play households that age, so aside from a few tests I did I won't really see character value traits all that often. I like the impact they have on Sims but IMO even without them the pack is absolutely worth its money.

The pack does plenty to give parents plenty to do (at least for Children), but my counter-point would be that good traits and good family gameplay are not mutually exclusive. It's entirely possible to provide both, so when the YA traits underperform, it just seems like a disappointment and missed potential on behalf of the GP team. Either they should spend a little more time thinking about interesting trait effects or they desperately need some more creativity; either way they could've addressed the issue with minimal time setbacks to it's release date.

Could they have delivered both good family play and good traits? Yes, and that's precisely why complaints and disappointment will be voiced from time to time.

"DeservedCriticism;c-15807991" wrote:
The pack does plenty to give parents plenty to do (at least for Children), but my counter-point would be that good traits and good family gameplay are not mutually exclusive. It's entirely possible to provide both, so when the YA traits underperform, it just seems like a disappointment and missed potential on behalf of the GP team. Either they should spend a little more time thinking about interesting trait effects or they desperately need some more creativity; either way they could've addressed the issue with minimal time setbacks to it's release date.

Could they have delivered both good family play and good traits? Yes, and that's precisely why complaints and disappointment will be voiced from time to time.

The traits are fine, I don't know what a couple few people are going on about, here's some backstory.

I had a son and a daughter as toddlers, the son had the angelic trait, and the daughter fussy.

The son is a teen now and has green in nearly all categories, the daughter is red in 3 and green in 2.

The son autonomously will do dishes, set up the table, and generally doesn't get into any trouble. He's only been in time out once, I seriously never have to punish him. He even has good grades and does projects.

The daughter meanwhile, never picks up after herself and was an absolute nightmare as a kid. She was CONSTANTLY making messes and being scolded. She went through a mean phase and was an absolute jerk to her dad and brother. I put her in time out more times than I can count, and most of it was autonomous. Let me tell you, that girl had a mouth like a sailor, and her grades weren't nearly as good as her brothers.

The traits in this pack have seriously improved, I'm so happy. I just aged them up to teens so let's see where it goes.

"Zeldaboy180;c-15808059" wrote:

"DeservedCriticism;c-15807991" wrote:
The pack does plenty to give parents plenty to do (at least for Children), but my counter-point would be that good traits and good family gameplay are not mutually exclusive. It's entirely possible to provide both, so when the YA traits underperform, it just seems like a disappointment and missed potential on behalf of the GP team. Either they should spend a little more time thinking about interesting trait effects or they desperately need some more creativity; either way they could've addressed the issue with minimal time setbacks to it's release date.

Could they have delivered both good family play and good traits? Yes, and that's precisely why complaints and disappointment will be voiced from time to time.

The traits are fine, I don't know what a couple few people are going on about, here's some backstory.

I had a son and a daughter as toddlers, the son had the angelic trait, and the daughter fussy.

The son is a teen now and has green in nearly all categories, the daughter is red in 3 and green in 2.

The son autonomously will do dishes, set up the table, and generally doesn't get into any trouble. He's only been in time out once, I seriously never have to punish him. He even has good grades and does projects.

The daughter meanwhile, never picks up after herself and was an absolute nightmare as a kid. She was CONSTANTLY making messes and being scolded. She went through a mean phase and was an absolute jerk to her dad and brother. I put her in time out more times than I can count, and most of it was autonomous. Let me tell you, that girl had a mouth like a sailor, and her grades weren't nearly as good as her brothers.

The traits in this pack have seriously improved, I'm so happy. I just aged them up to teens so let's see where it goes.

I'm not talking about character values, I'm talking the traits. The two are not the same. The character values are functioning fine, the Young adult traits are rather weak.

Had a child that was low Empathy and insensitive and they picked fights constantly. Moment they become a YA, suddenly they're calmer and back to normal, only picking a fight here and there much like Mean and Evil do (aka not enough, and may have been Evil doing this since she had that trait). The little girl that constantly sought to pick a fight or troll the forums was suddenly only interested in video games or tending to her needs, and would only rarely pick mean interactions in conversations. What's more, "Instigate" was the only new interaction worth mentioning (+2 moodlet to a negative mood for the target sim), as all the others she gained were functionally identical to existing traits.

Even ones such as Responsible are a bit weak, since they only encourage the Sims to work hard by default instead of boosting their promotion rate; a responsible sim and a sim that happens to be working hard seem to gain promotions at the same rate, it's just the responsible sim is less likely to come home tense. Very very few of the YA traits seem to actually matter, such as the Manners ones or Irresponsible.

Point is the YA traits could've been handled better. They weren't and that's disappointing, because as I said, functional character values for kids and well-polished traits for adults are not mutually exclusive, so even if the focal point of the pack is on kids, there's no reason they couldn't ensure this feature was meaningful for YAs too.

"Zeldaboy180;c-15808059" wrote:

The traits are fine, I don't know what a couple few people are going on about, here's some backstory.

I agree. I did some testing with cheated traits and setting a family on full autonomy to see what would happen and I think the "traits don't do anything" line is nonsense too. There will always be a few complainers in every game, no matter what.

Without the full details of how someone plays the game though, it's hard to tell too much. For example, if someone is claiming traits are pointless, what are your autonomy settings? (You aren't going to see much trait impact unless you've got some level of autonomy turned on). How many people are in your household? What are their main traits and character traits? How long have you played them to come to your conclusions? Do your sims often travel to lots or mainly just stay in their house? Frankly, I've seen little more than some blanket, generic, anecdotal type statements like "The traits don't really do anything...I don't notice any difference." That is hardly the type of evidence that's going to sway anyone's opinion.