How to make the game harder?

This is my biggest problem with TS4. Aside from the emotions not meaning much (as well as traits, at least in my game), the entire game itself just feels to easy.

I'd love to re-install the game but I've yet to find a reason to...

The game's biggest problem for me is the point of it that's highlighted the most: the faulty emotions system. It's the root of all TS4 evil.

If you have Laundry stuff pack, place the manual washing tub and hanging rack. Your sim will leave a pile of clothes every time all around the house. It really is challenging to juggle between trying to get promoted and washing the clothes to a point where you got annoyed and deleted those items. :D It's a sarcasm btw.

Oooh. Interestiiiing. Definitely trying this one out. Thanks!

On a serious note, I think the game seems easy now because sims have off days. Back in Sims 1 heck you got to go to work everyday and it is not that easy to get promoted. Also promotion requires friendships and skills. And friendship decays are quite fast. At the same time you need to take care of sims needs. That alone makes me keep on playing without getting bored.

Playing like how the Sims2 is set up makes the game a little bit harder...

*I never Drag and Drop stuff like plates and such. These Sims have to do it by their own

*I never change the clothes without a dresser.

* I never cook a food if i dont own all the ingredients.


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But to be honest, without mods its pretty hard. I am all for a harder realistic Gameplay.
Needs Decay is faster. Skill Building, Friendship and Work progress is harder. Not only is skill building harder, its also locked in certain activities. Like my Sim only gains Fitness Skill while swimming and not while boxing.
They have a loan that works as taxes, that they have to pay off. it includes traveling costs, clothes that they wear, Venues that they visit.
My Sim even has to pay for the Baby bottles and Diapers.
Because a Sim gets money way to fast and way too much.
And with the emotion overhaul... I have to overcome bad emotions

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I also dislike the fact that in Island Living, they hand you over everything, so fast and so easy. Like why do i find thousend mermaid shells, if it is supposed to be rare. The same goes with the dumpster diving. You make more money beeing a homeless guy then beeing a doctor.

"thatpinkcoconut;d-983674" wrote:
Lately I've been finding the game really easy that it's starting to bore me. My main issue being the ridiculously accessible Happy (and other positive) buffs and the rarity of negative emotions.
Please give me ideas on how to make the game more challenging... as well as things to avoid that make the game easier. Please don't give me the "it's a sandbox game. you make the game easier/harder depending on how you play it" card. I'm aware of that. I'm only here for the suggestions. Thank you.

Some things to note:
I play vanilla (without mods)
I own all the packs.
I'm fine with challenges but not really into them (too lazy to track things).

Play a house full of loner elders and wild toddlers. Have only one person earn money. Only feed toddlers in highchairs. Cheat the starting money to zero. Make them accept every single offer that comes on the phone, no matter what it is. Give them only the cheapest, most uncomfortable furniture. Don’t give them a toilet, so they have to walk to the park every time. Don’t allow them to ever earn money from selling anything. Never cook and only have junk food. Don’t have any entertainment items like books or TVs. Make them wash dishes by hand. Give the only worker an active job, then you can either take extra time by joining them, or prevent them from earning extra money from promotions by not joining them. Give them a huge multi-story house so they take a long time to walk anywhere. Lock all the doors and keep them in the house all the time so they can’t get their needs met outside. If a fire starts, don’t have them extinguish it themselves but wait for a fireman to extinguish it. Give them crazy NAPs and have them live off the grid. Get a Sim to paint a sad painting when they’re sad, then keep it near the easel so they’ll paint more sad paintings, then put sad paintings all over the house and enable the sad mood on the paintings. Make all the elders mean so they’ll be mean to each other. Make every day a fight day holiday. Put all your elders in a club and make the rules be that they have to be mean, fight, scare, and steal. Make your elders mermaids and give them no pool or tub. Or make them all vampires and give them all the inability to go into the sun. Buy the infamous club perk that makes everyone dislike them when they meet them. Give them no rock climbing training and make them all scale Mt. Komorebi. Give them only non-upgraded murphy beds to sleep in. Give their house negative lot traits. Create a long, winding maze they have to use every time they go to the kitchen. Enable all weather effects and give them no roof. Give everyone the paranoid trait. Don’t let them have a fridge, so they can only eat what they harvest or find in garbage cans. Don’t give them a garbage can at all so the house becomes disgusting. Make them do laundry. Give them a really tiny house (without enabling tiny house perks) so they’re always on top of each other. Make them live in the TLC apartment in San Myshuno, or the one with noisy neighbors. Have no adults work, so the whole family only lives on a teen’s part-time earnings. Turn the whole world industrial so they’re always coughing. Don’t allow anyone to ever clean anything. Play in Strangerville without solving the mystery, so the drains will be constantly clogged with plants. Give them the Gremlins lot trait. Make every day Harvestfest and keep the gnomes angry. Have them use the bubbleblower a lot so they’ll be dazed all the time. Have a whole garden full of cowplants and challenge yourself to keep them all alive, or keep them all hungry so your Sims occasionally get eaten. Never let Sims take pictures of/with each other, or they’ll become instant buddies. Change the settings on every holiday so Sims don’t get time off work for them.

Use one of the negative Lot Traits.

The simplest way to make the game harder is play bigger households. Juggling eight Sims isn’t easy. Raise multiple children on normal lifespan and get all the toddler and child skills to max level before they age up.

Make a super Sim. A Sim with all aspirations and skills.

Create a Sim with traits you do not normally pick and then choose a career you have never done before.

Change a venue to residential and convert it into a home with modifying outside walls. You can only change outside building esthetics. You can gut the inside. I try to leave existing windows and bathroom placement because it's hard to move plumbing in real life. Add whatever makes it your home. A gym makes a nice 100 baby house because of all the bathrooms. Maybe set a budget for more of a challenge. Sell stuff no longer needed.

Bulldoze everything and delete all the premade Sims like the Goths Landgraabs ect. Just start fresh, build, create Sims, download etc.

Create themed neighborhoods. The game has different styles you can sort for different esthetics.