I've been playing this game for a week, and already I am noticing what the community is complaining about. This mood system is very shallow and holds too much weight in the game. I remember when I first saw the Sims 4 trailer and how EA kept using moods as a selling point, I already thought it looked very boring. Was hoping after 5 years and countless number of patches and expansions, this would get fixed and more depth would be added to the game as a whole. I wish the sims had more impactful and long-term whims mixed in there. Aspirations as a long term goal is not enough, it's especially meaningless when I can just change my sims aspiration anytime. I would rather the aspirations be decided and locked for that sims life time, and have a set of long term whims that is driven by certain traits they have and not by their mood. The moods need to stay for a longer duration of time so we as players can actually have time to complete a whim. For example, when I was playing my teenage sim she was feeling happy and she wanted to chat with someone. Before she even got on the phone with someone, her mood changed and she suddenly wanted to play on her guitar. So I had her go do that after she went to relieve herself, the moment she got out of the washroom her mood changed AGAIN and she didn't want to play the guitar anymore, she wanted to troll someone online. Even if EA just patched the moods a bit and have the moods stay longer, that would be an improvement in itself! Why isn't "uncomfortable" and "very uncomfortable" lingering at shorter and longer intervals? Same with "embarrassing" and "very embarrassing". If a mood is classified as "very" I would expect it is a more impactful event that happened and it should make the mood last LONGER than when you are just uncomfortable. I feel like this should be a VERY simple patch. Maybe instead of adding traits, focus on the traits we have now and add more longterm whims that RELATE to the traits. Have the moods last longer and the amount of time it lasts could be relative to the different levels of that mood (ex: happy vs very happy, etc.). LOCK big aspirations and make them harder to attain!The following stuff might be hard to patch now, especially after so many years. But correct me if I'm wrong. Some form of repercussion when sims whims are not being fulfilled for an amount of time. Sims having memories would be fantastic. If this game is all about making story telling better, how can you leave memories out of it? Overall, I found when I was playing the sims I felt there was no aim to the game. My sims were literally living vacant, pointless lives. Every goal and challenge served no real challenge and no purpose. The most frustrating part is how easy all this could have been fixed or included as proven by sims 2, a game that is more than a decade old at this point. What happened to the Sims franchise...?

You are right, we just want to play a game! EA might as well just hand me a plastic doll and have me story tell.

I hear ya!I've been saying for years that the emotion system is poorly balanced. Moods change too easily, negative emotions have no booster, and Happy moodlets are too numerous, which makes negative emotions too easy to bury. In addition to your suggestions, I propose nerfing ambient Happy moodlets by removing them from all but the most expensive furniture and decorations, making Uncomfortable or Tense amplify other negative emotions, adding a Fear emotion, and changing the moodlet on the "Guilty Drinker" Vampire weakness from Tense to Sad...because Tense makes no sense, but Sad fits perfectly (or, Angry for Hotheaded sims, because traits really need to be integrated into the gameplay better).Also, there used to be a memory system. It was integrated with the emotion system, so once you took a screenshot, you could choose to register it as a memory, assign an appropriate emotion to it, and then your sims could reminisce about that memory to call up a moodlet of that emotion. This was destroyed with the disastrous "Get to Work" patch (which also nerfed the difficulty of careers). With that patch, they replaced the memory system with a laggy screenshot manager which forces you to sift through every screenshot from every save and every household to get to the memory you want and removed the ability to assign emotions to memories, instead changing the system to assign a random emotion to a memory from one of the zillions of moodlets your sim may have stuck to them at the time you take the screenshot. This, of course, destroyed the feature as a whole, and its utility as a gameplay and storytelling tool in particular. It's a shame, because I actually liked that take on memories. I thought it was innovative and cool to actually integrate our sims' memories into the actual gameplay like that. It added some interesting new strategies into the gameplay, and it was great for getting just the right expression for screenshots without needing cheats.

EA need to fix the whim system first. There currently is a bug that whims cannot be fulfilled anymore after travelling with a household. So any long-term whims are non-fulfillable at the moment.I had to disable my long-term whims from my whimoverhaul mod for the time being because of that exact issue.Other than that, I wholehartedly agree with what has beeing said here. Carl also criticized the whim and emotion systems lately and @SimGuruNinja acknowledged it was great feedback so I hope we'll be rolling in the right direction with future patches.

So so true.... I dont like to always compare the game, but all of this things mentioned were so good in the sims3 and i miss it so much. i really thought they would even expand on that in the beginning and add on it. Its frustrating that we keep having to write that request down. Its the number one thing that is so bad about the sims4, even Influencers and Youtubers have to point it out. What makes it even worse is that they said it will be soo good in the beginning....Sometimes i dislike the way the Producers are promoting the game... ''so you can tell that story''. I mean its fine. Its always what you make out of it.But the Games AI is sooooo baaad. The Game doesnt support our story enough, so it feels like too much of a dollhouse, where you have to litteraly be a movie producer to get some screenshot in. Planing your sims personality, theyre actions, theyre lifetime goals, theyre relationship story... Planing planing, because nothing happens by its own, and sometimes thats draining.Also hate the way theyre making the aspirations. This aspirations should be whims. Getting a suntan...?! seriously...Why are the aspirations walkthroughs?! And again i have to make my own goals for this particular sims, when in other games its just given.Style over substance... as seen in the livestream, when the one guru with the curly hair was in cas and couldnt even answer if there was at least ONE NEW TRAIT and quickly showcased the clothes. The look and hooow beautiful everything looks. CAS is more then just clothes... omg.Well i guess its another request that gets unoticed such like the other billion ones, but you never know since they are straight up silence about it, instead of saying something like... It can not be done... or we are working on it, but it takes time... we hear you loud and clear.... i mean at least something but its nice to vent a little.

I hear all of you. Trust me. I was honestly excited to start playing the sims again after so many years. Even having just spent a week with the sims 4, these flaws were obvious and I couldn't help but find a place to rant. Bravo to you guys for sticking with it for five years. Hopefully that "surprise" monthly sims update has to do with fixing whims...It looks like it's the number one thing EVERYONE is asking for. It would be very ignorant of them to ignore it. "83bienchen;c-17304959" wrote:EA need to fix the whim system first. There currently is a bug that whims cannot be fulfilled anymore after travelling with a household. So any long-term whims are non-fulfillable at the moment.I had to disable my long-term whims from my whimoverhaul mod for the time being because of that exact issue.Other than that, I wholehartedly agree with what has beeing said here. Carl also criticized the whim and emotion systems lately and @SimGuruNinja acknowledged it was great feedback so I hope we'll be rolling in the right direction with future patches.Oh really? I would like to see where SimGuruNinja commented on that. And yea, I was surprised how many people had the EXACT same complaint and almost the same idea for a solution. Funny how the whole community are on the same wave length and the sims team is just starting to realize this. They really need to get some testers for their base games, if they already have some...then they need to hire new ones.

Please patch whims and mood... | EA Forums

11 Replies

TopSecret534
6 years ago
You are right, we just want to play a game! EA might as well just hand me a plastic doll and have me story tell.
SimsLovinLycan
6 years ago
I hear ya!

I've been saying for years that the emotion system is poorly balanced. Moods change too easily, negative emotions have no booster, and Happy moodlets are too numerous, which makes negative emotions too easy to bury.

In addition to your suggestions, I propose nerfing ambient Happy moodlets by removing them from all but the most expensive furniture and decorations, making Uncomfortable or Tense amplify other negative emotions, adding a Fear emotion, and changing the moodlet on the "Guilty Drinker" Vampire weakness from Tense to Sad...because Tense makes no sense, but Sad fits perfectly (or, Angry for Hotheaded sims, because traits really need to be integrated into the gameplay better).

Also, there used to be a memory system. It was integrated with the emotion system, so once you took a screenshot, you could choose to register it as a memory, assign an appropriate emotion to it, and then your sims could reminisce about that memory to call up a moodlet of that emotion. This was destroyed with the disastrous "Get to Work" patch (which also nerfed the difficulty of careers). With that patch, they replaced the memory system with a laggy screenshot manager which forces you to sift through every screenshot from every save and every household to get to the memory you want and removed the ability to assign emotions to memories, instead changing the system to assign a random emotion to a memory from one of the zillions of moodlets your sim may have stuck to them at the time you take the screenshot. This, of course, destroyed the feature as a whole, and its utility as a gameplay and storytelling tool in particular. It's a shame, because I actually liked that take on memories. I thought it was innovative and cool to actually integrate our sims' memories into the actual gameplay like that. It added some interesting new strategies into the gameplay, and it was great for getting just the right expression for screenshots without needing cheats.
83bienchen
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago
EA need to fix the whim system first. There currently is a bug that whims cannot be fulfilled anymore after travelling with a household. So any long-term whims are non-fulfillable at the moment.

I had to disable my long-term whims from my whimoverhaul mod for the time being because of that exact issue.

Other than that, I wholehartedly agree with what has beeing said here. Carl also criticized the whim and emotion systems lately and @SimGuruNinja acknowledged it was great feedback so I hope we'll be rolling in the right direction with future patches.
NoNameGirl20
6 years ago
So so true....

I dont like to always compare the game, but all of this things mentioned were so good in the sims3 and i miss it so much. i really thought they would even expand on that in the beginning and add on it. Its frustrating that we keep having to write that request down. Its the number one thing that is so bad about the sims4, even Influencers and Youtubers have to point it out. What makes it even worse is that they said it will be soo good in the beginning....

Sometimes i dislike the way the Producers are promoting the game... ''so you can tell that story''. I mean its fine. Its always what you make out of it.
But the Games AI is sooooo baaad. The Game doesnt support our story enough, so it feels like too much of a dollhouse, where you have to litteraly be a movie producer to get some screenshot in. Planing your sims personality, theyre actions, theyre lifetime goals, theyre relationship story... Planing planing, because nothing happens by its own, and sometimes thats draining.

Also hate the way theyre making the aspirations. This aspirations should be whims. Getting a suntan...?! seriously...
Why are the aspirations walkthroughs?! And again i have to make my own goals for this particular sims, when in other games its just given.

Style over substance... as seen in the livestream, when the one guru with the curly hair was in cas and couldnt even answer if there was at least ONE NEW TRAIT and quickly showcased the clothes. The look and hooow beautiful everything looks. CAS is more then just clothes... omg.

Well i guess its another request that gets unoticed such like the other billion ones, but you never know since they are straight up silence about it, instead of saying something like... It can not be done... or we are working on it, but it takes time... we hear you loud and clear.... i mean at least something but its nice to vent a little.
TopSecret534
6 years ago
I hear all of you. Trust me. I was honestly excited to start playing the sims again after so many years. Even having just spent a week with the sims 4, these flaws were obvious and I couldn't help but find a place to rant. Bravo to you guys for sticking with it for five years. Hopefully that "surprise" monthly sims update has to do with fixing whims...It looks like it's the number one thing EVERYONE is asking for. It would be very ignorant of them to ignore it.

"83bienchen;c-17304959" wrote:
EA need to fix the whim system first. There currently is a bug that whims cannot be fulfilled anymore after travelling with a household. So any long-term whims are non-fulfillable at the moment.

I had to disable my long-term whims from my whimoverhaul mod for the time being because of that exact issue.

Other than that, I wholehartedly agree with what has beeing said here. Carl also criticized the whim and emotion systems lately and @SimGuruNinja acknowledged it was great feedback so I hope we'll be rolling in the right direction with future patches.

Oh really? I would like to see where SimGuruNinja commented on that. And yea, I was surprised how many people had the EXACT same complaint and almost the same idea for a solution. Funny how the whole community are on the same wave length and the sims team is just starting to realize this. They really need to get some testers for their base games, if they already have some...then they need to hire new ones.
Kanelbullet
Rising Vanguard
6 years ago
"Sk8rblaze;c-17304672" wrote:
I agree. Many of the gameplay systems of TS4 feel disjointed and unimportant. This was a world of a difference from TS2, where you have things such as wants, fears, aspirations, and mood all tightly integrated with one another. Succeeding at maintaining a happy mood for your Sim could reward you with not only unique objects but other bonuses you can choose from in a skill tree-like UI.

Gameplay feels like an afterthought in TS4. It's all about "tell stories" and imagination, whereas I just want to play a game. It's hard when there is no game design to be found.

Yeah, only reason I'm sticking to TS4 right now is that TS2 is taking soooo long time to load. But I might actually save money for a new computer and play TS2 instead of purchasing more packs for TS4.
TopSecret534
6 years ago
"Jordan061102;c-17305929" wrote:
Once again, this is what I've been saying for aaaaages dahling.

I seriously applaud your patience with this game then! :D
83bienchen
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago
"Jo_n534;c-17305877" wrote:

"83bienchen;c-17304959" wrote:
EA need to fix the whim system first. There currently is a bug that whims cannot be fulfilled anymore after travelling with a household. So any long-term whims are non-fulfillable at the moment.

I had to disable my long-term whims from my whimoverhaul mod for the time being because of that exact issue.

Other than that, I wholehartedly agree with what has beeing said here. Carl also criticized the whim and emotion systems lately and @SimGuruNinja acknowledged it was great feedback so I hope we'll be rolling in the right direction with future patches.

Oh really? I would like to see where SimGuruNinja commented on that.

@Jo_n534
It was here, on page 4 of the discussion: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/967310/carls-take-of-ways-for-improvement
Purrloin9
6 years ago
Totally agreed.
NoNameGirl20
6 years ago
"Jo_n534;c-17305877" wrote:
. Bravo to you guys for sticking with it for five years. Hopefully that "surprise" monthly sims update has to do with fixing whims...It looks like it's the number one thing EVERYONE is asking for. It would be very ignorant of them to ignore it.

"83bienchen;c-17304959" wrote:
EA need to fix the whim system first. There currently is a bug that whims cannot be fulfilled anymore after travelling with a household. So any long-term whims are non-fulfillable at the moment.

I had to disable my long-term whims from my whimoverhaul mod for the time being because of that exact issue.

Other than that, I wholehartedly agree with what has beeing said here. Carl also criticized the whim and emotion systems lately and @SimGuruNinja acknowledged it was great feedback so I hope we'll be rolling in the right direction with future patches.

Well thats at least something and i appreciate the comment from the Guru. Grant also answerd a few questions about the emotions on twitter back in the days and one was about changing the always happy state into fine, if they would work on such thing. I think at the end, there is a lot going on behind the scenes, that we dont know about.
Unpopular Opinion; I miss Grant and the Q&A Sessions, they were really insightful, even though he could be condescending and all.

This comment sticks out to me the most
Written by SimGuruKate ex Community Manager back when the alexa skill got announcend
''I have seen a number who have stated their thoughts in the first way. And even with the first way of sharing your thoughts, we often wont reply. And not because we don’t see it or only want positive feedback, but because not every message needs a response. Oftentimes there is almost nothing one could say to either of the above that would add value or make the individual happy or satisfied. So many times in these situations it is better to say nothing at all. We gather the feedback and we pass it onto those who can impact change.''

Its still frustrating and i am not one of the players who was sticking for five years xD.
waited till toodlers were in the base game and even then played the sims2 till 2018. Sometimes it takes a vivid imagination to play the game to be honest and i dont always have it.