Please fix the emotions system

I agree. The emotions system seems like a good idea conceptually, but I feel its current execution is lacking. I remember in one of the surveys they did in the past year or so, I specifically pointed out that I actually would rather return to the old personality point system where my sims' actions were actually controlled within that spectrum of points they had, than for all the samey-samey Sims who have emotions that don't really affect their behavior in any concrete way.

For example, neat Sims actually got excited and had fun cleaning in past games, whereas sloppy Sims really just did not care or notice if their house was full of garbage. It made for some fun conflict with extremely neat and extremely sloppy Sims living together.

Another good example were shy versus outgoing Sims in previous iterations. Having a shy Sim made it even harder than it already was to make and maintain friendships, but it was a fun challenge. And again, some extremes and personalities just did not get along well together unless you really worked at it.

In Sims 4, I don't find it all that hard for my Sims to make or keep friends, and there's really not much in the way of actual Sim behavior to indicate shyness when you want to play a shy Sim.

Now in all fairness, I think the lifestyles and likes/dislikes have started to try to address this. But I can't help but feel that it's still rather like putting a fresh coat of paint on the shed that's ready to collapse outback. Until there's some structural overhaul to fix the problems, all it's going to do is make the shed *look* pretty, not make it more stable.

Tldr; the emotional buffs are poorly designed and don't actually affect Sim behavior enough to make my Sims distinct from one another. Either fix them or give me back my personality points and zodiac, please.

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

In The Sims 4 Update on 5/27/2021, A Sim gets a fine +1 Sparkling Clean Surroundings (From Being in a Clean area). This is very irritating when I want my Sim to complete the Painting Extraordinaire asperation and it's very difficult to get my Sim to be inspired. The Bust the Dust kit was already busted. Inspired +1 wasn't bad, but Fine +1 really takes the cake. The Sims team is overdoing it with the fine moodlet. Tiny Living and Snowy Escape were more than enough. At least with Fine +10 I can surge emotion. Why can't Sparkling Clean Surroundings be a happy +1 instead?

"Dannakyri1;c-17899208" wrote:
OMG your Sim's only grieve 2 days. I feel like my are 4 days at least which is a long time considered the age span of sims. If every day is roughly a year, 2-4 years is a long time to be sad all day every day after a death. I know the death of a loved one hurts real bad and stays with us, but most people do not spend a full 2-3 years actively feeling sad 24/7

OMG who said a day is a year in the Sims? WHERE did you read it? what if I play with aging off? I just want it to be a little longer, maybe a week. And I want them to be at least reminded by it, YOU KNOW, to make things more meaningful :) Just a suggestion :)

"chuckjaymoore;c-17899203" wrote:
https://i.imgur.com/sGUvQNF.png

In The Sims 4 Update on 5/27/2021, A Sim gets a fine +1 Sparkling Clean Surroundings (From Being in a Clean area). This is very irritating when I want my Sim to complete the Painting Extraordinaire asperation and it's very difficult to get my Sim to be inspired. The Bust the Dust kit was already busted. Inspired +1 wasn't bad, but Fine +1 really takes the cake. The Sims team is overdoing it with the fine moodlet. Tiny Living and Snowy Escape were more than enough. At least with Fine +10 I can surge emotion. Why can't Sparkling Clean Surroundings be a happy +1 instead?

I like it better if it's like that. It feels more realistic and adds a challenge.

I do prefer it at least when the emotion in question is happy. Because while happy can override other emotions, it only enhances them if they are just as strong (happy will feed into inspired, for example, and make a sim more inspired). Fine however is it's own emotion, if you can call it that. It only overrides other emotions. At least if you're happy about the AC, it will make you more inspired, which makes some sense. But they should all be little +1s. I hated the +4 inspired for having a pristine floor. Seriously? Mod, mod, mod...

"jpsulsuldagdag;c-17901378" wrote:

"Dannakyri1;c-17899208" wrote:
OMG your Sim's only grieve 2 days. I feel like my are 4 days at least which is a long time considered the age span of sims. If every day is roughly a year, 2-4 years is a long time to be sad all day every day after a death. I know the death of a loved one hurts real bad and stays with us, but most people do not spend a full 2-3 years actively feeling sad 24/7

OMG who said a day is a year in the Sims? WHERE did you read it? what if I play with aging off? I just want it to be a little longer, maybe a week. And I want them to be at least reminded by it, YOU KNOW, to make things more meaningful :) Just a suggestion :)

What would be better (and kind of cool) is if they randomly got sad buffs for lost love ones. They get happy buffs for being a happy toddler all the time, for crying out loud. Big events should have a permanent (but not on all the time) impact. Deaths, weddings, divorces, birth of a child, etc should have a memory buff that returns from time to time.

PS a day is sort of a year for a sim, at least if you play on normal lifespan. It comes out to about an 80 day life. You just can't really treat it that way, but I think they meant 2-3 days is already like about a 30th of their life.

"ravynwolvf;c-17901689" wrote:
What would be better (and kind of cool) is if they randomly got sad buffs for lost love ones. They get happy buffs for being a happy toddler all the time, for crying out loud. Big events should have a permanent (but not on all the time) impact. Deaths, weddings, divorces, birth of a child, etc should have a memory buff that returns from time to time.

YES!!! I really, really wish that major events would come up more often to impact their moods! It would be a small thing, but IMO it would really elevate gameplay.

It would be nice if sims' actions weren't completely dictated by emotion. It's not really relatable. You're not gonna yell at the next person you see just because you're angry. It would also be nice to have more tools at your disposal to calm a sim down.

First of all, please understand that I am not good at English, so my sentences are a bit strange.

This is just how I feel about this system, but I think that a sim's reaction to something they dislike should be boredom, not tension.
For example, do you get frustrated when you see a piece of furniture that we in the real world don't like? At least I don't feel that way.
When we have to listen to music we don't like, we may feel bored rather than nervous (irritation).

Of course, there are many areas that have been made very comfortable by this additional system. For example, it's so cute to see sim coming home after working hard and getting soothed by listening to his favorite music.
However, it is not fitting in for me to see a Sim who gets nervous and takes out his frustration on other Sims just because there is one piece of furniture in front of him that he doesn't like.

I enjoy this system, but I can't set my sims to something I don't like because of this, so I hope they can improve on this a bit.

The grief thing is a mess. Toddlers and infants shouldn't have their entire developmental years tainted by deep depression because the letter carrier died.

I feel like the emotions system as a whole needs tweaking, but especially when it interacts with the sentiments system. Situations like cheating vs. reprimanding a toddler for having a tantrum have widely disproportional consequences. It's frankly quite baffling.