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ReflectedLite's avatar
ReflectedLite
Rising Hotshot
6 years ago

Suggestion request: change to real-time clock (and back) when you want

Hello. We have always had the option in the game to make aging go very slow, or even to turn off aging altogether. This lets you slow down their entire "life" span because for whatever reason you want their entire life to last longer, even until you decide otherwise. Now of course you could do things that take too much time on the normal lifespan, but who cares: it's up the person playing the game the way they want, so there's no issue of "that's not fair" and so on.

People want the life of their sim to last far longer and have the freedom to decide when they want to change that.

Well there's another very similar version of this sort of thing: how long a day (or part of a day) lasts, not just how long their lifetime lasts.

Let's say you go to a party, or go on a date, or are just hanging out. It would be very cool if you could slow down time to make that party, date or hanging out pass in real time (1 minute of sim clock = 1 minute of real time) instead of sim-time, and switch back to sim-time whenever you wish.

I know there's a mod that slows down the time, but it also makes all other tasks slow down, including the most mundane tasks (like using the bathroom for example), which partially defeats the purpose.

Can you please, for the same reason, give us the ability to toggle between "real time" and back to "sim time" so we can enjoy playing out events when we wish, but make it so things you do (like using the bathroom, cooking, etc) pass in "sim time"?

"It's not fair" should not enter into the equation as this is not a competition and it's about enjoying a sim game that we're playing solo.

Thank you for considering it.

9 Replies

  • lauriertjuhh's avatar
    lauriertjuhh
    6 years ago
    Thank you for opening this thread! This is one of the things I would really like to see in The Sims 4, actually maybe the most core-like feature, because it influences pretty much every aspect of the game. I'm a huge fan of realistic game play, even in such an extend that I would want to be able to experience every moment in a Sim's life, how small -and maybe for some players meaningless- as it could be. But... at the same time being able to speed up the game play, otherwise it would literally take my whole life to play out one Sim's life ;p

    I realize this could not be possible without mods in The Sims 4, due to the whole system this game is built on. (would love to hear from The Sims team if that isn't the case by the way :D) But it would definitely be one of the most important things for the successor of the fourth installment of The Sims franchise in my opinion! Along with the fact that the day to day life of a Sim should be more diversified, without needing to be a very interesting or successful Sim.
  • CapitanTony's avatar
    CapitanTony
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago
    You'd have to have two clocks. One a timer the game runs on to time things like cooking, eating, etc so they work normally. Then you'd need a separate one that handles the sun going down, and a sim day passing. That wouldn't be so hard. The tricky part would be things like what time the mailman comes, or what time the Spice Festival starts. I assume you'd use the second clock. But what about all the sims wandering around your neighborhood? They are all programmed to show up at certain times. Second clock again? So at sim 2 o'clock they'd all walk by and be gone for a real hour. It would have to keep looping and looping, otherwise. Ambient Pizza Man after ambient pizza man would wander by. And what about needs? Are you going to slow down the decay on the bladder, or keep it the same? If you slow down decays but leave it so it only take a few real seconds to empty, pretty soon they have no needs for a real hour and game play falls apart. It's a lot more complicated than it sounds. You'd either have to slow down everything and sit and watch them eat for a real hour, or slow down nothing and watch them eat 5 dinners every real hour.
  • CapitanTony's avatar
    CapitanTony
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago
    BTW, when Will Wright created the first Sims game, he said he didn't know at first what it was. Then he realized it would be a time management game, which is kind of what life is. Take away that aspect and there isn't much of a game left; only a story telling tool. Better to just have a sandbox game where the day doesn't advance until you put your sim to bed.
  • astridentanja's avatar
    astridentanja
    6 years ago
    I think people underestimate how boring that would get. Like, when I take a shower myself, I’m in there for five/ten minutes. I feel the hot water, I wash my hair, the entire sensation of taking a shower I experience. Same when I eat: I taste it, I enjoy it. When I read a book I enter a different world and live the life of the people in that book. I stop being me for a while and when it’s a good book that can take hours and hours. When I play a game, when I watch tv: same thing. But consider this:

    https://i.gifer.com/C78.gif

    If that goes on for like two hours (suppose he’s watching a film), how much fun is your game going to be? I’d go watch a movie myself personally. When we go through life we experience some awesome, varied stuff. Doesn’t make us fun to look at in the process though. When I read a book, then cook, then eat, then play a game, I do four entirely different things. In a game it would come down to pretty much the same thing though. With a lot less variety because it would constantly come down to the same, repetitive animations, unlike real life.

    Life you live, in real time. A game you play. Sims is supposed to be a game. Not life.
  • Cemirror's avatar
    Cemirror
    6 years ago
    I have personally thought about this, too, since I really try to make my Sims productive. Here's a compromise, though. I'd love it if the Sims 4 team would try to make the routine functions of the sims take about the same time as they would in actual real life. For instance - who really takes an hour to eat breakfast? Or two hours to shower? Or half an hour to walk from one end of the house to the next? If they would just speed up even those movements or double the time in the day, that would be great.
  • Lukas11xxf's avatar
    Lukas11xxf
    6 years ago
    > @Sk8rblaze said:
    > I feel TS3/TS4's ultra speeds aren't as fast as TS2's, and especially in TS4's case, it feels as if the game struggles to maintain the fast speed going. I'm often bored out of my mind with the game running even in ultra speed, so I can only imagine how I'd feel playing at the base normal speed.

    Than you're computer is probably unable to run the game properly as it suppose, if you find that it's unable to run ultra speed as intented.


  • Lukas11xxf's avatar
    Lukas11xxf
    6 years ago
    > @ReflectedLight said:
    > I know there's a mod that slows down the time, but it also makes all other tasks slow down, including the most mundane tasks (like using the bathroom for example), which partially defeats the purpose.
    >
    > Can you please, for the same reason, give us the ability to toggle between "real time" and back to "sim time" so we can enjoy playing out events when we wish, but make it so things you do (like using the bathroom, cooking, etc) pass in "sim time"?

    How would that be different from what a mod though? Not disputing the idea, just wondering.
  • popstarissa's avatar
    popstarissa
    6 years ago
    It’d be way cool to have a couple of available speeds slower than Normal. I 3-speed my way through a lot of the game but I’d love a slower than normal clock for some events.
  • Babykittyjade's avatar
    Babykittyjade
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago
    I love this idea. Interesting to hear people's different POV because I NEVER fast foward anything. No matter how slow or mundane I prefer to watch it. Even if they're just sleeping lol.

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