Opinions on Goth makeover?

I do feel if they were to base them off an earlier iteration, that iteration should have been TS1 (at least for Mortimer and Bella). The unfortunate thing about Sims 2's CAS is that all sims end up looking the sameish due to the limitations of the tech, and most "decent" looking faces are variations on face 1 and 2. In addition, it did not do ethnic facial features well. In TS1, the heads, while fixed, were more unique in appearance, allowing for different shapes, proportions and details.

For example in TS1, Brad Burb has a squareish head, Cornelia Goth has a smaller, roundish head, Jeff Pleasant has a very egg shaped head, Diane Pleasant has a more heart shape with highly defined cheekbones that could cut cheese, and Michael Bachelor has a roundish head that is East Asian in appearance (in the game files, it lists Bella's and Michael's heads as being Asian). In TS2, everyone has the same similarish base of rectangular/ovalish due to the limitations of CAS, that none of them look like themselves (though it's not noticeable since they decided to kill off all the characters from TS1 and replace them with their trashy soap opera children, and the one person who fully makes a return is the sim who has a head suited for TS2's CAS, Mortimer).

I did some tweaking of mine (I don't intend to keep Cassandra and Alexander as I prefer to start with the parents' younger years and childhoods), but I believe the bustier wrap top and pencil skirt in red would make a better substitute for her dress without looking too formal and out of place. Also, those heels seem more suited to clubbing then for wearing everyday, so flats seem more appropriate. Also, lighter tights, and less clunky jewelry - rememeber, she is supposed to be athletic and elegant. I'm not sure why they changed her nose, since it was already similar to the Sims 1 version, less defined bridge included, and instead gave her the most generic nose shape in the game.

https://i.imgur.com/L7V9lYk.png

While completely different, I think the Mustache with the goatee better suits Mortimer as the pencil mustache is way too thin, while the full mustache is way too full. His head seriously needs to be made more rectangular, with more emphasis on the forehead. The age details could be better toned down too.

https://i.imgur.com/ttiQ8Z0.png

One thing I've noticed is that they've continued the trend of overdoing the gothic thing to the extent that all of the outfits of everyone is either black or dark red, leaning way way to hard into Addams family territory.

Cassandra used to be one of the prettiest Sims ever when she grew up and you took her glasses off. Now she's still pretty but just ordinary looking. They could have just changed their skin tones (except Alexander who did not NEED to be changed) and left the rest of their features alone. They also gave Bella a breast reduction and increased her waistline. The worst thing, though easily changeable, is that they gave her the same hairstyle that they MADE FOR that woman in Tartosa. They could have made a new hairstyle just for Bella, something that resembles her old Sims 2 hairstyle.

"simgirl1010;c-18115313" wrote:
I'm cool with it. I rarely play the premades or keep up with the lore. They're just background characters.

It's wild to me that we went from the Sims 2 lore to this. What a reversal.

"Sthenastia;c-18116607" wrote:
I have just only updated Bella's skintone and makeup by sliders and nothing more. Here is the effect. Ok. She could have been darker, but I just would like to show that sometimes less is more...

https://i.ibb.co/425PZcd/Bella-minimal.png

Literally every single fan update on the forums and Twitter, including this one, looks 1000% better than the update we just got from EA. Every. Single. One.

EA needs to let creators do these fixes just like they finally gave in and let creators design the houses in all their new worlds; they are not very good at this job, and creators will happily do it for free.

I think they're okay. I don't play them so I never cared much anyways. Do kind of wish they kept Cassandra's hair though.

"Chaotic_Moira;c-18116364" wrote:

"Oldeseadogge;c-18116320" wrote:
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Who gets to decide if it's broke?

In view of the Goths being such an iconic family in the franchise the more considerate of the community approach would have been to first set up a forum poll, like we can, by an appropriate guru. A, 'we are thinking about changing the Goths, what is your opinion?' kind of thing with a range of responses to choose from. Maybe include some sample shots as well.

I really dislike the new look for the Goth family. I wish there was an option where we could choose which one we have in our new save files. Now I'm going to have to delete them in every new game and try to replace them with the old ones somehow. I'm glad that other people like the new Goth family though! They should be allowed to have their preferred version, just like I can use the old version since I prefer it.

Wait, something occurred to me. (Hey, it happens.) Sims 4 is (and always was) meant to be an "alternate timeline" kind of thing in the series, right? Is that no longer the case now, or what? If it's not changing, why would anyone particularly expect any of the pre-mades to closely resemble their counterparts from earlier games, anyway? And if that's not the reason they're being "updated"... then what is the reason? And if it IS changing, why now, so late in this particular game's lifetime?

"CAPTAIN_NXR7;c-18115708" wrote:
So here's how I feel about this entire make-over thing:

It's sort of comparable to a TV show you've been watching for years; You're familiar with the cast, you may even have grown fond of the characters. Suddenly, after all those years, the entire cast is replaced with actors who ethnically "LOOK" more accurate "because that's how the characters were originally written ". Wowee, thanks Production Company. You should've considered that while in pre-production a decade ago.

Here's the thing: I've already accepted The Goths as the characters they represent in this particular world given to me all those years ago. There was nothing wrong with them. Why change them? It almost feels like betrayal. Almost. Why now? Did players actually complain? Were The Goths not "realistic" enough?

The Sims 4 Goth family will never, ever look like the Goth families that inhabited the worlds in Sims 1 (same low poly face syndrome), Sims 2 (same long face syndrome) or Sims 3 (same plum face syndrome), because newsflash: Different art style. Different facial structures. Different shading, lighting, absolutely everything different.

Is it so hard to accept The Goths and Calientes etc. for who they are in THIS iteration? I mean, folks who think the Townies are not good enough will drag them all the way trough CAS anyway.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with what this new family LOOKS like, I'm wondering what the issue was with the original Sims 4 Goth family in the first place?

Having said all that, I don't play with any of the Townies, I create my own cast, although I always enjoyed having original S4 Bella around. Attractive an enigmatic looking Bella is now replaced with some ordinary looking lady who lives across the street, probably pretending to be a secret agent, but really she just works as an accountant. For a small company that produces...cheap cat litter trays. At least new Morty looks like he could be original Morty's handsome sibling. The kids....I mean...sure. I don't recognize them. I don't get it, but then again, I'm not very intelligent.

But hey, just because I don't get it, doesn't mean I really care. o:)

Honestly, you summed up the whole situation.

So...here's my Goth story and why I am totally biased to the old look.

First, to be completely honest, I have never much cared about Sim NPCs, save for the "special" Occults in Sims 2, (who couldn't be played or changed and needed to be pursued and befriended to be granted the same "Occultism".) But in Sims 4, something about the interesting characteristics of many of them and recognizing them around town for many, many years (I play the same long save with aging off) has grown on me and somehow put a few pumps in my cold, dead, still heart. I always loved their house and allowed it to stay, with them in it, whilst the majority of all other NPCs got booted out of their lots or moved around to other places. The Goths were the one "normal" family, (or not so normal,) that I took to. And they started getting my attention in ways I didn't expect.

It started, like many things do, with Cassandra. I used to use a modded game many years ago, so when a new EP came out, I would load a separate vanilla game that I had on the side, to test it, so I could identify if there were any game bugs as opposed to possible glitches caused by my CC or mods. This ended up being the save that I stuck with, eventually. Here's what happened:


Now, because I play one save and keep aging off, I do go around to households to age up Sims when I'm ready, and refresh their outfits. I aged up Alexander Goth, and then came across him in San Myshuno, looking disdainfully at the street art. I decided immediately that he was more interesting than I had anticipated:


Finally, the tale of Bella. To preface this, I just need to say that her fate was the result of a dev contest that was an NPC popularity poll that was shared on these forums a few years back, and we got to vote in segments through process of elimination. Vlad lost to the Bjergsens (Yes, this is important) and, of course, Bella Goth won the finals for the crown of most popular premade. I was to have my revenge on Vlad's loss, so I took it to my game...


As for Mortimer, well, he called up Bella because one of Dracula's Brides was apparently stalking him for dates and he asked Bella what she thought of her and if he should go. I took it as a sign that he was trying to let Bella go, sadly, not understanding her situation, or the fact that he was now in danger himself. Bella told him to stay the heck away from that monster woman.

Alas, that is where the tale currently sits. We shall see where it goes from there, but I have grown attached to the fate of the old Goths in my game and I just won't be able see the new ones the same. Maybe I'll put them in my game as a Multiverse twist and have the Vampire council eat or enslave them. Or maybe new Mortimer will worm his way to another fate, he does look a little sly. We shall have to see.