I have never really played with kids before this playthrough and some things really don't make sense.First of all it seems developers mean something completely different than me with the word "empathy" since you lose empathy points willy nilly for completely illogical reasons.Emotional Control also suffers from basically anyting but writing in your journal (which as far as I know is the only thing that boosts it).The result, of course is that my twins are Very Polite, Very Responsible, and has a HUGE chunk of RED in Empathy....What???It is especially jarring where I get chance cards (which never specifies what you lose, anyway, which I kind of think is a dirty trick in itself) where you basically always loses either Empathy or Emptional Control by doing the actual logical and yes often emotionally correct thing??? Like "Not being a plum to another kid" = Loses Emotional Control. "Not cheat on a test" = Loss of Empathy.Or something equally nuts.But again, it almost feels like the developers mean something completely different than the standard definition of Empathy, since my sim kids are very loving, kind and still have a huge red chunk in empathy??

I struggle with empathy too. What usually can help with empathy is volunteering but as you said the chance cards can go either way.Most of the time to increase empathy I have to play unnaturally. For example send my sim to talk to another in a bad mood, the interactions cheer up, console all help with empathy. I say unnaturally because I may be playing a sim who would never perform those interactions on the sim in question but it's their only opportunity to get some empathy if I particularly want my sims to get that value. Children playing with the doctors play set also get empathy.I totally agree that the advice options don't make much sense. Once the parent gets to about level eight of the parenting skill they can see the outcome of every advice question and if you want a particularly character value you cam select that one.Emotional control can be raised by winding down with music and playing instruments. Also jogging.

The thing is that it doesn't really help knowing the outcome, if the choice is illogical.I tend to roleplay, so there's no way I tell the kid something basically wrong, just to increase a stat.

Those character values are very... unbalanced, to say the least. Unless my children skip school every day, it's pretty much impossible to not end up with the Responsible trait when they grow up, on the other hand Manners are lost much more easily than they are gained, and all the other values won't go either way if I play naturally.Personally, I struggle the most with Conflict Resolution, because there just isn't enough conflict in this love peace & harmony world to begin with. As for Emotional Control, apart from the journal, you can also improve this by playing instruments in a certain way, listening to classic music, and jogging to clear your head. The latter is only available to teens, obviously.There's also a bug in my game where character values affect adults as well. I have an adult vampire who often gets into friendly fights with other vampires to become stronger, and the game keeps telling me that she's losing... I don't know, Conflict Resolution? I'm pretty sure this shouldn't be happening.

I have pumped manners every day for hours since they were born. We'll see how it turns out.

I also have a hard time seeing the logic in the chance card outcomes, even with my knowledge of child psychology. I like that there's always a trade off, but a lot of the time the outcome doesn't make much sense.

Parenthood illogical penalties | EA Forums

18 Replies

Francl27
8 years ago
The chance cards are bugged I think. When I got the GP, it always told me what they'd lose, now it just seems completely random. Although it might be intended, who knows?

To be honest, I have absolutely no idea what you be the consequences in game of a kid with non empathy, considering that they all behave the same way anyway.
SimTresa
Seasoned Ace
8 years ago
Suppose you can have children and teens argue then apologize to get conflict resolution up. Also, keep having parents teach them to say sorry. This is easier when their needs are high, otherwise they get bored five minutes in and won't learn.I think I've only maxed it once or twice so far. I encourage my kids to write in their journal, play with emotion, go jogging, and play with the doctor playset.
Most traits maxed by one sim: 3. Responsibility, Manners and Empathy, though she had a good amount of green in the other two as well. she actually gained the ability to take others' emotions on herself, I think it was.
izzle_bizzle7
8 years ago
Yeah I agree it's really easy to get the responsibility and the manners but everything else is much harder. I've managed to have Sims with all of them but mediator was definitely the hardest to earn. It SOOOO helpful to have higher parenting skills. But that's hard to do with short lifespans unless your sim has lots of children. I do enjoy the pack and playing with families though.
emmaPatty
8 years ago
Just a tip for getting your sim's parenting skill up: have your sim do every interaction on their newborn baby all the time until they age up to a toddler. Your sim will gain the parenting skill much faster when interacting with babies than with children and teens. And as a result, your sim will have a great relationship with their baby :) They can also read parenting books before they even have children. I like this option for sims who are family oriented and want to be super prepared for their baby.
Beardedgeek72
Seasoned Ace
8 years ago
I play on Long Lifespan, so I'm not really in a hurry; my kids have 40 days before become teens.
CaseyTS4
8 years ago
I never try to make my kids personalities a certain way, play them as I feel they would be parented and how they would personally choose to behave in scenarios, chance cards, etc and see how they wind up. I've had some different results.

Maybe your kids are just sociopaths? :#
EnkiSchmidt
Hero
8 years ago
For teens volunteering for community work is a surefire way to get empathy up quickly. I'm not sure about children, but I noticed with a teen criminal on parole who had to "volunteer" every day and his empathy was soon through the roof, despite it being out of character for him.
The empathy boost is in addition to the chance card that you'll get during volunteering, so empathy can both rise and fall depending on the card's outcome.
dianed485
Seasoned Ace
8 years ago
I agree with you. I don’t get how, with the chance cards, boosting some character value decreases another, that, too me, doesn’t make sense.
And as you see what’s gonna increase and what’s gonna decrease, it influences what you’re gonna answer when it shouldn’t.

Also, I had my sim read her sister’s diary, her sister caught her and got angry, then their mother could tell of the diary owner for being mean to her sister, but not tell off her sister for reading it, that makes no sense to me either ?
Same, if the girls argue, my sim can only tell one off for being mean but not the other.....
She can’t « discipline recent behaviour » either when one of her daughters gets angry and kicks the trashcan down. I mean why can we discipline some bad behaviours and not others ?

That being said, I really like this game pack!

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Parenthood illogical penalties

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