Make spellcasters actually exist in the game?

Like Don't get me wrong, I loved the Idea, where It's gameplay that toggles Occults to come out and play. I thought that was a perfect way to balance the scales. But don't nerf them!
Don't want Vampires? Then stay away from Vampire Lore, don't discuss them when interacting with another sim.
Want vampire's to overrun the worlds, Create and mess with vampires all Day & Night.
Don't want Magic? Then don't go looking for magic.
Want magic 24/7? then blow the secret wide open!
I feel like Spellcasters should be able to discuss magic with humans or any other Life State for that matter. or "Ask about magical Concepts" or "Ask for a demonstration." "reveal their power"

For some reason I was hoping Get Famous and Realm of Magic would meld together Perfectly.
The moment you reveal your Power to the world and how you use it, setting and building a reputation around Magic. Becoming Known for your magical prowess, Your skill in alchemy. Your ancient bloodline.
People come flocking to your cauldron crying spells! Ursula! Please!
https://64.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8u2soInIZ1rcb0d2o1_500.gifv

That's all I really wanted that for my spellcasters, a force to be reckoned with. When Sim's mentioned speak their name to others they'll tremble in fear and/or praise their good deeds. Other Spellcasters Knocking at their door, begging... groveling to become an apprentice!
The Thing about get Famous is Sims don't recognize you for your reputation, they don't realize your sim being a Great Painter, Writer, Singer, Actor, Comedian, Chef, Respectable Law Enforcement, Miracle Doctor, an Inspiring Scientist, a Powerful Spellcaster, An Infamous Vampire. They only notice you were able to make a name for yourself. They don't care about what you sim has done.

If my sims were conversing and I had my sim "ask about favorite author" My hope they would respond would Be "William Shakespeare" (yes I put him in my Game along with the Grimm Brothers and Lord Byron). he's a very Successful Writer in my game. Many of his books are in my game, and in the bookshelves of many of my sims. even My painters Leonardo Da Vinci, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael are my renaissance painters. most paintings and portraits in my sim's households, are by them. I like seeing familiar names in my game.

To be honest, after seeing what a disaster autonomous spellcasting was in Sims 3, where they would constantly cast random spells for absolutely no reason or context, I am extremely thankful that it's not autonomous in Sims 4, because they can't program sims AI to save their lives

"AngeliqueAdelaide;c-17770610" wrote:
To be honest, after seeing what a disaster autonomous spellcasting was in Sims 3, where they would constantly cast random spells for absolutely no reason or context, I am extremely thankful that it's not autonomous in Sims 4, because they can't program sims AI to save their lives

Which is proven by aliens, when they autonomously erase the memory of their friends and even partners. Those types of interactions are the reason my MCCC tuner file is almost 300 lines long. Of course along with many other useless, autonomous things. Like shoveling snow.

"Kathykins;c-17770702" wrote:

"AngeliqueAdelaide;c-17770610" wrote:
To be honest, after seeing what a disaster autonomous spellcasting was in Sims 3, where they would constantly cast random spells for absolutely no reason or context, I am extremely thankful that it's not autonomous in Sims 4, because they can't program sims AI to save their lives

Which is proven by aliens, when they autonomously erase the memory of their friends and even partners. Those types of interactions are the reason my MCCC tuner file is almost 300 lines long. Of course along with many other useless, autonomous things. Like shoveling snow.

I have never played with aliens, but that does indeed sound awful and storybreaking. MCCC tuner is a gift from god.

"AngeliqueAdelaide;c-17770610" wrote:
To be honest, after seeing what a disaster autonomous spellcasting was in Sims 3, where they would constantly cast random spells for absolutely no reason or context, I am extremely thankful that it's not autonomous in Sims 4, because they can't program sims AI to save their lives

Sims can create a lot of other random disasters and do useless things autonomously without magic.
That's like saying Sims shouldn't interact autonomously at all, they should just stand around until the player commands them.

That's why there is an autonomy option in the settings. It wasn't the Developer's call to make. Some people live for the chaos,
Spell Casting Autonomy should have been a check box in the Settings.

Allow the player to have another Human Sim ask for a spell from the Spell caster. If they're afraid the spell caster will run off starting fires, growing plants, stealing, and making food appear everywhere, handing out potion samples. but if that's what the player wants, why should one player have to suffer because another player is afraid of the possibility.

Now what am I to do? My Sim is an Evil Tyrannical King who gave a Powerful Spellcaster a Position as his ArchMage. He stands at his Right hand side to Fire, Freeze, Strike his subjects/enemies with lightning as long as it pleases the King. the King is an ambitious man, and the young Archmage shares his ambitions, Often they are suppose to discuss Magic, and how they can use magic to better the Kingdom, and talk certain spells potions, and hexes... Now they can't because They nerfed Spellcasters the wrong way. Now my Archmage just roams the corridors of the Castle doing the mundane things all the other Lords and Ladies do, when he has a lot Magical business to attend to.. It would be nice to see him Practicing magic in His tower, reading his spell book, at his desk, but he doesn't because Spellcasting autonomy is permanently disabled and I can't do anything about it.

It's like when Vampires came, I created a Vampire I wouldn't mind breaking into my house, and may want to seduce, or take advantage of my sim. and now they reduced the chances of vampire break ins.
My Archmage, has a group of Vampires & Ghosts working under him, lurking in the shadows, and He has sent them to Feed on and Haunt people who break deals with him.

If only there was a way for sims to act the way the player intended. they way we built the character. that way they will behave the way the player wanted without fear of doing something out of character, and I wouldn't have to micromanage everything, but I do because I know the AI doesn't exist. I would like to see my sim take care of their needs themselves again.

The thing is a lot of people say "The randomness is the whimsical charm of the Sims" uh no, It's good randomness I can tolerate. there are random moments my sim has that take me by surprise, because the thing my sim did is totally something his character would do, and I didn't give any effort tell him to do it. that's the beauty of it.

"MasonGamer;c-17772733" wrote:

"AngeliqueAdelaide;c-17770610" wrote:
To be honest, after seeing what a disaster autonomous spellcasting was in Sims 3, where they would constantly cast random spells for absolutely no reason or context, I am extremely thankful that it's not autonomous in Sims 4, because they can't program sims AI to save their lives

Sims can create a lot of other random disasters and do useless things autonomously without magic.
That's like saying Sims shouldn't interact autonomously at all, they should just stand around until the player commands them.

This, I actually liked the autonomous spellcasting in the previous game whereas my sims who is grumpy always cast a fireblast or plague spell on another sims whenever he has grumpy moodlet, or when his mother who has good trait frequently use lucky and sunlight charm on another sims. they arent that totally random as the autonomous takes note on the witch/wizard's traits and current moodlet.

I noticed that even Vampire in Sims 4 never actually use their own power autonomously except the movement power (teleport and superspeed) so it's not just a spellcaster issue.

"halloweenchild;c-17768235" wrote:
What you see with Spellcasters is the result of the nerfing of Vampires. Want to know how and why this started? Well it all started because the Guru's decided to make a pack solely dedicated to occults, aka the vampires. Where they would be properly fleshed out and not cramed in as a side feature to a bigger pack (ala Aliens and Mermaids.)
On paper, this was a perfect idea, that way people who wanted the life state and occult themes would be happy and people who didn't would also be happy. a guaranteed win-win situation. Or so they thought.
Turns out that people were unhappy with the gothic BB&CaS items being locked away in a pack dedicated for vampires, because how dare the Guru's try to please everybody.
So, as a result, realism players who hate occult type gameplay brought the pack for the decore items, so naturally, when the occult gameplay kicked in and started to add unlife to the game, the people who brought the pack but didn't want the main feature started to complain on here, Twitter, Facebook etc about suddenly having vampires in their game, when they didn't want them in the first place. Even going as far as to directly contact the Guru's directly to ask for a nerf, stating that the "occult gameplay was taking over normal gameplay", the Guru's eventually caved to the pressure and nerfed NPC vampire behaviour to a 00.01% chance of happening outside of the "tutorial" break-in at the start of nearly every new save.
To this day there are still people complaining about "excessive" vampire break-ins, IMHO they are either lying or are over exaggerating and mistaking a "break-in" for when vampire NPC's turn up at their sim's door-step of a night time for a random visit, which isn't technically a break-in, it's a neighbourhood interaction. There are a difference people! JFC, this topic still gets my goat.

Anyway, this is why Spellcatseres are so restrained, they're shackled to the Magic Realm and behaving like normal non-occult sims because the Guru's didn't want to deal with the "backlash" from realism players again (This also bounces back to Alien abductions being dialled down and Mermaids being so underdeveloped as well). I mean fair enough if you don't want supernatural elements/occult gameplay in your game, but when you buy a pack that has occult/supernatural themes or elements as it's the main selling feature, you don't have a right to complain about it, since you're the one who brought it, you have no one to blame but yourself, so suck it up.

Sorry, this topic just infuriates me. None of the occult gameplay lovers, that I know of, harass the devs over the decision to add more "normal" gameplay, but the moment there is even a lick of supernatural themes the Realism players just come marching out of the woodwork "reee-ing" at the top of their lungs.

Hm... Sounds a bit harsh... I personally didnt play the sims4 in 2017 or do i have the Vampire DLC installed yet, so i dont now for sure but blaming only the realism players for this debacel... alright then.
I mean we now how excessiv the Devs can programm certain stuff into the game, we just have to look at the n.a.p.s for an example. We now how intrusiv Celebs (and unrealistic) can be and i now how often i need a mod to fine tune stuff in the game because its waaaay to much to the point where it becomes annoying (death by murphy bed). In some areas they dont have the balance, you know the middle ground... its rather over the top or none at all... And i have a lot of tweaking mods that start with ''less...'', that do it much better then Maxis ever can... These modders find the balance but for some reason the devs dont?

I am sure there were/are people who cared about the occults but still thought it was too much, just like the phone calls or the visitors...
. I even watched a lets play where a sim got abducted by aliens 3times in a row just because-- Yeah just because... It was random...
And thats another thing... If i have a good vampire he shouldnt just randomly break in the second i dont play with him. Where is the personality...

(I dont even now if that happened, but its the sims 4 so i assume it did)




And there is no reasons why we dont have toggles for this... Its not just family players vs occult players. I am somewhere in between. And if i want an alien civilation where vampires are forbidden and killed or vice versa it should support my play style and my story through the options Menu. There was a reason why we had them in the Sims 3 and it was not just because to appeal to the family players who only cared about the items in an occult pack.

"PreCiious;c-17773093" wrote:

"halloweenchild;c-17768235" wrote:
What you see with Spellcasters is the result of the nerfing of Vampires. Want to know how and why this started? Well it all started because the Guru's decided to make a pack solely dedicated to occults, aka the vampires. Where they would be properly fleshed out and not cramed in as a side feature to a bigger pack (ala Aliens and Mermaids.)
On paper, this was a perfect idea, that way people who wanted the life state and occult themes would be happy and people who didn't would also be happy. a guaranteed win-win situation. Or so they thought.
Turns out that people were unhappy with the gothic BB&CaS items being locked away in a pack dedicated for vampires, because how dare the Guru's try to please everybody.
So, as a result, realism players who hate occult type gameplay brought the pack for the decore items, so naturally, when the occult gameplay kicked in and started to add unlife to the game, the people who brought the pack but didn't want the main feature started to complain on here, Twitter, Facebook etc about suddenly having vampires in their game, when they didn't want them in the first place. Even going as far as to directly contact the Guru's directly to ask for a nerf, stating that the "occult gameplay was taking over normal gameplay", the Guru's eventually caved to the pressure and nerfed NPC vampire behaviour to a 00.01% chance of happening outside of the "tutorial" break-in at the start of nearly every new save.
To this day there are still people complaining about "excessive" vampire break-ins, IMHO they are either lying or are over exaggerating and mistaking a "break-in" for when vampire NPC's turn up at their sim's door-step of a night time for a random visit, which isn't technically a break-in, it's a neighbourhood interaction. There are a difference people! JFC, this topic still gets my goat.

Anyway, this is why Spellcatseres are so restrained, they're shackled to the Magic Realm and behaving like normal non-occult sims because the Guru's didn't want to deal with the "backlash" from realism players again (This also bounces back to Alien abductions being dialled down and Mermaids being so underdeveloped as well). I mean fair enough if you don't want supernatural elements/occult gameplay in your game, but when you buy a pack that has occult/supernatural themes or elements as it's the main selling feature, you don't have a right to complain about it, since you're the one who brought it, you have no one to blame but yourself, so suck it up.

Sorry, this topic just infuriates me. None of the occult gameplay lovers, that I know of, harass the devs over the decision to add more "normal" gameplay, but the moment there is even a lick of supernatural themes the Realism players just come marching out of the woodwork "reee-ing" at the top of their lungs.

Hm... Sounds a bit harsh... I personally didnt play the sims4 in 2017 or do i have the Vampire DLC installed yet, so i dont now for sure but blaming only the realism players for this debacel... alright then.
I mean we now how excessiv the Devs can programm certain stuff into the game, we just have to look at the n.a.p.s for an example. We now how intrusiv Celebs (and unrealistic) can be and i now how often i need a mod to fine tune stuff in the game because its waaaay to much to the point where it becomes annoying (death by murphy bed). In some areas they dont have the balance, you know the middle ground... its rather over the top or none at all... And i have a lot of tweaking mods that start with ''less...'', that do it much better then Maxis ever can... These modders find the balance but for some reason the devs dont?

I am sure there were/are people who cared about the occults but still thought it was too much, just like the phone calls or the visitors...
. I even watched a lets play where a sim got abducted by aliens 3times in a row just because-- Yeah just because... It was random...
And thats another thing... If i have a good vampire he shouldnt just randomly break in the second i dont play with him. Where is the personality...

(I dont even now if that happened, but its the sims 4 so i assume it did)

And there is no reasons why we dont have toggles for this... Its not just family players vs occult players. I am somewhere in between. And if i want an alien civilation where vampires are forbidden and killed or vice versa it should support my play style and my story through the options Menu. There was a reason why we had them in the Sims 3 and it was not just because to appeal to the family players who only cared about the items in an occult pack.

It's more... Fantasy players vs Reality players. To me, Supernaturals, Occults, is essential for the family Playstyle. It's a requirement for my family play style at least. Magic and Werewolves are essential to my plot of the main story It's very mundane without it.

In all honesty one doesn't trump the other, It all boils down to storytelling, Overall I Am a Storyteller, here to play around with my story, and using the Sims 4.
The Story Consists of Several Genres: Fantasy, Realism/Historical References, Action, Adventure, Romance, Tragedy, Comedy.
For the story to be fully Enjoyable it requires.:
Seasons, Cats and Dogs, Get Together, Get to Work, Dine Out, Realm of Magic, Vampires at the very least.

It will require Going Forward:
Werewolves, Ghosts & Ghost Possessions, Farm Living Expansion Pack, Medieval/Castle Living Expansion Pack

My game Relies Heavily on Get Together: Builds, the Club System, To design my Spheres of Influence
The Forms Governments I have: Monarchy, Aristocracy, Democratic-Republic
Media, School Systems, Court Systems, Society & Family all of whom define my world's culture and traditions.

I do blame players for vampires because there is truth in it. I do recall a lot of Break-ins, but, the fix is plain and simple, Don't give vampires the "Eternally Welcome" perk! However, the devs share the blame for bending.

Quite right, I have multiple saves, one where Spellcasters, Vampires, Mermaids, and others are just as common as humans there's no secret that Magic exists, so I don't see why my sims are shocked every time my Spellcasters use magic out in the open.

The other save is still a fantasy, however a bit more "realistic" in the sense where it's a mostly human world where magic and the supernatural have crossed over and went into hiding because people feared it. A world where there are those who hunt Supernaturals because they believe it is their duty, to cleanse the earth, and keep it safe... and some just love hunt for sport. but eventually, magic becomes exposed, glorified, and manipulated and abused.

It really should be a toggle for autonomy at least, But undo all the changes first
-Allow sims to practice magic at the very least, outside of their home lot.
-Allow Non Spellcaster Sims to interact when socializing

I so agree with Atreya33, we need a magical lot trait added to the lot traits.

As for the Realism players, you had your turn back in 2020, it's the Occult players turn now. Fair is fair.

"halloweenchild;c-17769484" wrote:
I don't know of many, if any, occult players who ask "WhO aSkEd FoR tHiS? every time a realistic pack is announced, yet that seems to be the question asked every time an occult/supernatural pack is announced.

This is why I've started to comment "If it ain't Werewolves I don't want it" on every realistic pack announcement. I'm lying because I actually like slice-of-life and fantasy content meshed together. But if they're just gonna keep coming at us every time we try to just enjoy occult content and give our feedback to the Simgurus for what we want with supernatural gameplay, then I'm just gonna start giving them back their own medicine.

If I have to start choosing one or the other in this feedback war because they can't understand that occult fans have been here in this franchise fandom since Sims 1, then I'll pick my team and I care way more about occults than I do about babies. I'm getting salty.