Missing Emotion

It occurred to me... Fear in the Sims isn't even a new concept. The Sims 2 for GameCube had Fears in opposition to Wants. Mostly, it was small day-to-day fears and they would change often. Fear of a fire breaking out, missing work, romantic rejection, a burglar, etc. Somehow, though, the idea was never incorporated into the emotion set for 4. I like the idea mentioned earlier of the option to give Sims one or more Phobias and even the possibility of letting them overcome certain fears (like a Sim who befriends the Grim Reaper would no longer be afraid of him, since they have a close relationship.) Certain Traits could even be applied to deal with Fear. Fearless, Courageous, Nihilistic, etc. You could use them to make adrenaline junkies, emo/goth Sims, and so on.

It looks like as of now, it is lumped in with uncomfortable and tense. When an earthquake occurs, they get an uncomfortable or tense moodlet. I think it would be appropriate to add in a fear emotion.

Black would make for an interesting UI color if fear ever gets added.

I'm not really sure what a new fear emotion could possibly add that isn't already covered by Tense and Uncomfortable. What I do want is the possibility to set specific fears for individual sims in CAS, though, like a fear of dogs for example, that would make affected sims tense when a dog is around.

In theory, yes, black would be good. However, in a practical sense, legible print in the moodlet box might not be as simple.

I have an evil vampire Sim that nobody in the worlds seem to fear. They are shocked and dislike him when he drinks from another sim, but have no fear, otherwise. It is extremely hard to story-tell with that. He could be disliked for anything else, but there is nothing separating him from any other sim in terms of interpersonal interactions.

I would say that fear would be best dealt with by going away from it. Then again, intense fears could also possibly be slowly overcome by exposure. That seems the most realistic approach. Perhaps not the most convenient, but certainly realistic. I think the power of a fear moodlet could be adjusted accordingly. +1or +2 for mild fears, higher for more intense ones. It could even stack from "Afraid" to "Very Afraid" to "Terrified". Sims could even potentially be, literally, scared to death. The Book of Chaos even does this, after a fashion. If you use the "Scare" option, it's just like the Mischief interaction except that it gives the Sim a fatal heart attack.

"GrumpyGlowfish;c-16725345" wrote:
I'm not really sure what a new fear emotion could possibly add that isn't already covered by Tense and Uncomfortable. What I do want is the possibility to set specific fears for individual sims in CAS, though, like a fear of dogs for example, that would make affected sims tense when a dog is around.

These aren't accurate emotions, however. 'Tense' is what you feel when you're overworked. 'Scared' is what you feel when you're outside in a thunderstorm (or you should be, anyway). It's especially inaccurate for toddlers, who feel 'sad' about nightmares, ghosts and thunderstorms. They aren't sad, they're frightened.

Four storytelling purposes fear would be VERY helpful. Interactions with vampires, aliens and the reaper should lead to fear. The more cowardly Sims could even faint from such encounters.

"invisiblgirl;c-16726931" wrote:
These aren't accurate emotions, however. 'Tense' is what you feel when you're overworked. 'Scared' is what you feel when you're outside in a thunderstorm (or you should be, anyway).

You're right about the definition of the term, but TS4 has always taken liberties with its portrayal of so-called emotions (I'd say "dazed" isn't actually an emotion in the true sense of the word), and the way "tense" comes up in the game, I've always interpreted it as sims being psychologically uncomfortable with something, be it fire, an earthquake, the fun bar being low, or just too many people in the room if they're loners. So yeah, "scared" is what people should be when they're facing a dangerous situation, but the game makes them "tense" instead, so fear is actually in the game already, just under a different name, that's what I was trying to say.

"Peral;c-16727271" wrote:
Four storytelling purposes fear would be VERY helpful. Interactions with vampires, aliens and the reaper should lead to fear. The more cowardly Sims could even faint from such encounters.

Well, I don't think I'd want fear to add to the discrimination against aliens that is already going on in the game. It's weird how every sim, independent of their traits, reacts negatively to finding out that someone else is an alien. So if fear (either as a new emotion or some kind of trait) ever becomes a thing, I'd like to decide for myself who or what my sims are afraid of.