neighborhood stories - will there be no global toggle?

"keekee53;c-18016758" wrote:
Wait what?? There is no way to turn it off?

We don't yet know for certain if we can turn it completely off; there has been no clear statement on that (that I'm aware of, anyway).

@Triplis Thanks for posting this. I hope they answer this in a way that's as clear and well-written as your question!

I would very much like ONE button to turn the complete system off.

This was my first experience with the new system: a Grandmother - whom I play in another household - asks her toddler for advice about a job she doesn't have, and then the game decides to turn my wise much beloved elder sim into a completely dimwitted and clueless sim who uses the word "weird" and apparently has never made a decision before in all her many years of life, and suddenly feels it's difficult to cope without the input of her 3 year old grand-daughter.

https://i.imgur.com/1nCN03K.jpg

To explain why I'm not enjoying this: Imagine dedicating 1000s of hours writing a novel that is very personal to you - you've laboured over each characters personalities, hobbies, what they look like, how they'll behave, what they wear, where they live, how they decorate their homes - in essence, you've brought them to "life" in your mind and heart and you've grown emotionally attached to them, and then a burglar breaks into your home without your permission, finds your creation, and begins deleting and re-writing entire passages, leaves derogatory comments about the characters you've created, and writes a message in big red letters: "You can continue to write your novel, but I'm gonna break into your home when you least expect it and over-ride creative choices you've made about character and plot development, and you'll just have to put up with it."

I love sims 4. I'll be topping up nearly 8000 hours with this game. I've been playing one rotational game save since the beginning and now currently play with 186 sims in many households in all the worlds. I make my own sims in CAS, build and decorate their own homes and community venues. I also make my own townies and many of them are close friends with my own played sims. I use NPCC to make sure every single sim in my game counts - either has a job or another purpose. I play with aging off across the entire sims universe, and was hoping to continue to play "my creation" for many years to come. Without a simple way of disabling this entire system, I'll have to accept a co-author- with a very different and necessarily generic vision. Are all of my played sims going to feel "weird" if they don't get told exactly what to do? And just how many "break ins" will I have to endure?

I completely understand that their intention for this is to try and make the game better, but I was already loving the way it was and don't need help in being creative, so a global OFF button would be wonderful for me.

____________

Also: instead of a out of the blue phone call, perhaps an email system would be less intrusive to gameplay. Through phone and computer, our sims could "Check their emails" when it is an appropriate time for their personal circumstances, and they can then go through all the messages at their leisure and make these life choice decisions, either all at once, or a few at time. There could be a 20 email limit, with ONE message popping up in the left hand corner telling us our email account is full. Then, just like real email, the player has the option to either delete all messages, or go through them one by one. This hands more control back to the player. They chose when, and how many decisions they want to make at a time.

@Simalleyaile Well said, and I agree with almost everything you pointed out. The only thing I would have said differently (my own opinion, that is, using all but one of your words) is "Without a simple way of disabling this entire system, I'll refuse to accept a co-author- with a very different and necessarily generic vision." The game has already been taking bits and pieces from the player's control for a while now, and if I lose this as well, that'll be the breaking point for me. There comes a time when I simply won't continue to play a game that's no longer the game that I paid for.

"Simalleyaile;c-18016788" wrote:
Also: instead of a out of the blue phone call, perhaps an email system would be less intrusive to gameplay. Through phone and computer, our sims could "Check their emails" when it is an appropriate time for their personal circumstances, and they can then go through all the messages at their leisure and make these life choice decisions, either all at once, or a few at time. There could be a 20 email limit, with ONE message popping up in the left hand corner telling us our email account is full. Then, just like real email, the player has the option to either delete all messages, or go through them one by one. This hands more control back to the player. They chose when, and how many decisions they want to make at a time.

I like this idea.

Although I appreciate that they are designing it in a way where we have a say in the choices, I don't think the phone is the right approach. The way I see it happening with the phone, people who don't completely silence their phones to block it will end up doing one of two things after they get used to the system: either meticulously checking neighborhood related prompts and choosing carefully (which could disrupt the flow of their gameplay and annoy them) or become an unconscious prompt they click yes or no on to save time and decision-making power (which trivializes the point of us getting to choose).

Decision fatigue is a real thing and letting us choose when to handle it in some kind of way like you describe would be the more effective way to design it, I think. More in line with the goal of giving us some say in the process. Intrusive yes/no prompts may be giving us a say in the thing they are about, but they aren't giving us a say in when we have to deal with those prompts, so that's getting one form of control and losing another.

Wait what?? There is no way to turn it off?

I'm sorry that your experience hasn't been a positive one. Hopefully, EA will provide a toggle. If not, there's a chance that a modder will provide a way for you to take back control of your own game.

I'm in a similar boat as you. I don't use live mode very often. However, I do rely on TS4 for storytelling through poses and screenshots. I have maintained control by not allowing my game to update unless I'm positive that a patch won't have a negative impact on that. As a result, I haven't updated in quite a while.