Let's talk about the flawed emotion system

"Neia;15206245" wrote:

"Hermai;15205623" wrote:
I don't like this gameplay based on emotions. At first I thought it was fun, but later on a felt like I was always manipulating the emotions of my sims so they could do a certain thing. And I don't like that. For me, emotions should be just a consequence of what happens in sim's lives, not a gimmick to manipulate all the time. Maybe when they were more "hidden" they felt more fun.

I like that manipulating the emotions is entirely optional, I never use the emotional auras for example, and I always choose the interactions that give emotional moodlets for the interaction itself. I usually just go with the flow with whatever emotion my Sims are currently in, I think it makes the gameplay extremely fluid, and I think the more content, the better it will be.

I think the emotion system could be even better with a bit more granularity (more steps than Inspired/Very Inspired), and with the more common Happy buffs being less impactful. At the moment, some moodlets (like Well fed for example) have too big an impact on how our Sims feel, though removing the Decoration buffs goes a long way to make the emotion system better already.

I'll use the emotional auras to set up rooms for specific functions. For example, in my art studio I will activate emotional auras so Sims can get in the proper "mood" for creating. In the study with the computer I'll activate either the Focused or Inspired mood auras for the same reason. Most of my houses are aura free except for those few areas.

One thing that would help in the case of the original post is that less weight be given to decor or other buffs when a strong emotion is present, so that the change isn't that drastic. For example, if you're really sad about something you shouldn't immediately be happy as soon as you go into a well-decorated room -- maybe at most you'll go to a neutral state like Fine but the Sad moodlet will still be there in the background to pop up when you least expect it. Even in real life, you're not sad constantly 24/7 after the death of a loved one -- sometimes a friend or family member will share a funny story about the departed, or maybe you see a picture of them or something they cherished and you'll feel a little better. Or someone will ask how you are and you don't want to go into detail so you say, "I'm FINE." That sort of thing. A wider application of the neutral/Fine emotion could help minimize the feeling that Sims are subject to such wild mood swings.