Happy sims don't need to smile 100% all the time

I really liked Zerbu's mod that uncomfortable buffs the negative traits. But I agree Sims smile too much, it has a Stepford robot vibe to it and sometimes it is hard to tell which Sims are possessed or not because of it. I would like emotions to be closer to how Inside Out handles it than how the Sims 4 handles them. It is a bit more complex and has the fear emotions which I badly wish the Sims had. But yeah sad when Disney can do emotions better given how kid friendly it is.
https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/kRuZLGEnNBZCBOLs05bn2Oq9a88=/0x0:2281x2121/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:2281x2121):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3824542/inside_out_emotions-03.png

Meaningful Stories is a good mod for balancing out the emotions. As the comment above pointed out, the Sims in this iteration have this Stepford vibe.

God, I agree completely. Part of the problem is that the game is set up to keep Sims in a Happy state. The default emotion is actually "Happy", not "Fine", which was a very bad decision. Sims should always default to a neutral state so that the player can decide the fate of their mood. Also, a Sim can just eat a good meal and get a happy buff. Like, why? If they were a Foodie or a Glutton, this would make perfect sense. But why is it a thing for all Sims? And the "nicely decorated" buff makes me bat-spit crazy. Again, why isn't that buff reserved for Sims with the proper traits, like Materialistic?

I can't stand the "happy simulator" aspect of this game. It makes for very dull gameplay.

"LiELF;c-17377847" wrote:
God, I agree completely. Part of the problem is that the game is set up to keep Sims in a Happy state. The default emotion is actually "Happy", not "Fine", which was a very bad decision. Sims should always default to a neutral state so that the player can decide the fate of their mood. Also, a Sim can just eat a good meal and get a happy buff. Like, why? If they were a Foodie or a Glutton, this would make perfect sense. But why is it a thing for all Sims? And the "nicely decorated" buff makes me bat-spit crazy. Again, why isn't that buff reserved for Sims with the proper traits, like Materialistic?

I can't stand the "happy simulator" aspect of this game. It makes for very dull gameplay.

I think that is why I like the rags to riches game play the most and tend to keep Sims in the rags direction because the nicely decorated buff is way too strong for the game especially with all the other positive buffs in the game with the tea and the Plumbob lights and MySims dolls. It is like having a poorly designed MMO game with all the buffs in the world, but not enough debuffs to make the game too easy to play when battling a boss, so kind of makes the challenge of the boss not fun knowing everyone else can beat it easily. Not sure if that makes sense.

"LiELF;c-17377847" wrote:
God, I agree completely. Part of the problem is that the game is set up to keep Sims in a Happy state. The default emotion is actually "Happy", not "Fine", which was a very bad decision. Sims should always default to a neutral state so that the player can decide the fate of their mood. Also, a Sim can just eat a good meal and get a happy buff. Like, why? If they were a Foodie or a Glutton, this would make perfect sense. But why is it a thing for all Sims? And the "nicely decorated" buff makes me bat-spit crazy. Again, why isn't that buff reserved for Sims with the proper traits, like Materialistic?

I can't stand the "happy simulator" aspect of this game. It makes for very dull gameplay.

I totally agree with you! Moodlets should be related to traits. The way it is now it becomes dull for sure! Never felt like this on 20 years of siming! Ive really tried to enjoy this game. Ive tried for 4 years. But i can't if this can't be fixed :( i'm recently back to sims 3 because of this. And im happy cause, with a more capable computer, im really enjoying it without any lagging, which is the only complain i had of it.

The reasons I ever played any of these games are because of the Sim. Not the worlds, not the things to do, not the food, not anything else but the Sim. If you can't stand the Sim then you know what you have to do. You have to stop playing the game where you can't stand the Sim and start playing the game where you can stand the Sim or at least tolerate. It's why so many returned to TS2 or TS3 and stopped playing TS4. If the Sim doesn't cut the muster then there really is no point in playing. Even TS1 Sims are more believable (without any facial expressions) than this game.

"Cinebar;c-17378043" wrote:
The reasons I ever played any of these games are because of the Sim. Not the worlds, not the things to do, not the food, not anything else but the Sim. If you can't stand the Sim then you know what you have to do. You have to stop playing the game where you can't stand the Sim and start playing the game where you can stand the Sim or at least tolerate. It's why so many returned to TS2 or TS3 and stopped playing TS4. If the Sim doesn't cut the muster then there really is no point in playing. Even TS1 Sims are more believable (without any facial expressions) than this game.

While I understand your point, this is something that CAN be fixed at a coding level. Its not a foundation aka permanent aspect that can't be change and to that point as has been clearly demonstrated people would like Maxis to make this change. Its in their power, lots of us do enjoy the Sims 4. I also enjoy the sims 3, but like 4 there are things I wish didn't exist/I could change about 3.

As they are working on 4 still and updating/making changes/additions this seems like a perfect moment to address community feedback and make their game even better.

@Tolkien i hope that happens. A deep overhaul on sims personality. I have almost all dlc and i like very much it's content. It's the only thing laking to me. But it's a big thing :(

"TOLKIEN;c-17379092" wrote:

"Cinebar;c-17378043" wrote:
The reasons I ever played any of these games are because of the Sim. Not the worlds, not the things to do, not the food, not anything else but the Sim. If you can't stand the Sim then you know what you have to do. You have to stop playing the game where you can't stand the Sim and start playing the game where you can stand the Sim or at least tolerate. It's why so many returned to TS2 or TS3 and stopped playing TS4. If the Sim doesn't cut the muster then there really is no point in playing. Even TS1 Sims are more believable (without any facial expressions) than this game.

While I understand your point, this is something that CAN be fixed at a coding level. Its not a foundation aka permanent aspect that can't be change and to that point as has been clearly demonstrated people would like Maxis to make this change. Its in their power, lots of us do enjoy the Sims 4. I also enjoy the sims 3, but like 4 there are things I wish didn't exist/I could change about 3.

As they are working on 4 still and updating/making changes/additions this seems like a perfect moment to address community feedback and make their game even better.

They aren't ever going to change this one. This is the animators' work. Do you really expect them to remove an animation having to do with facial expressions? Something that is baked into the core game deep in the animations? This is the sixth year of TS4, it's like spitting into the wind, as much as I dislike the joker grin, I don't think they will ever tone it down, or stop them from doing it since it's part of an animation. It's four years since the situanational outfit problems spread through the game, they aren't going to fix that, either.

"Cinebar;c-17379330" wrote:


They aren't ever going to change this one. This is the animators' work. Do you really expect them to remove an animation having to do with facial expressions? Something that is baked into the core game deep in the animations? This is the sixth year of TS4, it's like spitting into the wind, as much as I dislike the joker grin, I don't think they will ever tone it down, or stop them from doing it since it's part of an animation. It's four years since the situanational outfit problems spread through the game, they aren't going to fix that, either.

Um....what? Animations are updated and created constantly not only for the sims 4 but most games in general. Its part of game development and maintenance, its what art team is paid to do and all they do. Art teams have down time too. As the animation already exists, tweaking an animation is REALLY easy once you know what you want, its more the time it takes to alter it and add any new frames into it speaking as an artist myself.

Regardless your point that its been six years is more relevant to this, but hey if you don't ask and keep asking nothing changes. So I'll keep asking and clearly I'm not the only one.

Doing nothing achieves nothing lol.

As the for outfits comment, we had a huge swath of bug fixes over the last few patches in 2019 that addressed bugs that literally had been around since the games release or years that followed.

So clearly they do fix things, it just takes time.

The situational outfits is a little more complex though, less a bug and more a gameplay mechanic that needs to be rethought which is more complicated. I'm not saying it won't be fixed for that reason, but ALL games have issues.