Hey Simmers,Wow, it's been literally 3 years since I was on the forums, no lie. I've just been getting back into The Sims 4 over the past few days, and I have a serious question for you all...Does it bother anyone else that we still don't have real teenagers?When the game shipped without toddlers, the community rightfully raised all hell. We got toddlers, eventually, and I would call them the BEST toddlers of any Sims game thus far - and I say that as an avid Sims 2 player. The Sims 2 is still my preferred game, but when I play it, I miss the TS4 toddlers.So I'm going to put myself out there and say that the game didn't just ship without toddlers. It also shipped without real teenagers.And it really, really bothers me any time I play the game. Does anyone else have this issue? They aren't teenagers! I feel like I'm literally playing the same lifestage three times in a row - teen, young adult, adult.So I'm wondering, is this something that is on anyone else's radar? Is it on the Sim Guru radar? Can we get it on the Sim Guru radar?I'd personally like to see a COMPLETE revamp of the lifestage, with shorter teens, new animations and interactions, and new gameplay opportunities. I'd like to see my teenagers searching for their important "firsts" and developing that attraction system that we need, having their first pimples, developing stronger interests and tastes, acting out and wanting to find out who they are, trying "juice" for the first time... I'd like them to have different clothes and styles, to be able to argue and fight with their parents...What are your ideas?

Many players have exactly the same issue with teens as you do (like me, nothing to add), others will say nowadays teens are often taller than their parents or show pictures where adults played teens (Grease) and nobody noticed right? For me this are no arguments, because while a teen may be taller than their parents, they aren’t taller than themselves when they become adult. Plus the teens played by adult actors represent at least the 17/18 yr olds, I think the game needs 13/14 yr olds. And last but not least: it’s a game where life stages matter, so there must be diversity, it must be clear. Each life stage should be recognizable (using some stereotypes; yeah I know not every elder walks with a stick and bends over, but some do and I need an elder to look like one too). I play a guy in Sims 3 who was conceived after his dad had made the genie wish where they ask for a long life. Turns out that means each life stage of kids born after that (like my sim) lasts twice as long, also in childhood. I really felt the guys frustration when he was still a teen, somewhere around his 30s and still being treated as a kid by everyone. I wouldn’t have felt that if I’d played him in Sims 4.

I tried to do different things with the teenagers to make them feel different, but I know what you mean, they need more life and a discovery of life. I've built arenas, arcades, cafes, all in an effort to have more things for my teens to do and try to re-create that and it really didn't work. It needs the proper interactions/reactions to go with them. Sure the stuff I built was fun, but YA-Elders can have fun there too, even children in a lot of cases although I did these buildings with teens in mind. It didn't fix the problem though. The teens need some stuff for just them to make them feel different from other stages and they should look different too. It bugs me too sometimes if my sim is at a park and chatting it up and I think they're making a friend and I see it's a teen then just feel kinda creepy... Part of why some of this is missing I feel like is because it's missing for adults. No sims have likes or dislikes or favourites or anything. The teen problem is part of a much larger core game problem. All the life stages need work though to be honest. (Except for Toddlers, YA and Adult). Elders and children are neglected and I would like more interactions for them. I remember my TS3 elders whipping out wallet photos to show off their family to other sims, that was so sweet! I'd like my elders to feel more distinguished, I feel like they've lived long enough to deserve it. Children should be able to interact with each other more and act like children. Pillow fights, playing pretend, tag. All my sim children want to do anymore is be alone with a tablet. If I take electronics out of the house, they talk more to each other, but that's it. It's not their fault though (the sim kids), the interactions simply aren't there.

I would love teen-only aspirations.

"JoAnne65;c-17369014" wrote:Many players have exactly the same issue with teens as you do (like me, nothing to add), others will say nowadays teens are often taller than their parents or show pictures where adults played teens (Grease) and nobody noticed right? For me this are no arguments, because while a teen may be taller than their parents, they aren’t taller than themselves when they become adult. Plus the teens played by adult actors represent at least the 17/18 yr olds, I think the game needs 13/14 yr olds. And last but not least: it’s a game where life stages matter, so there must be diversity, it must be clear. Each life stage should be recognizable (using some stereotypes; yeah I know not every elder walks with a stick and bends over, but some do and I need an elder to look like one too). Hey, thanks for your response. Yeah I know that some teens are taller than their parents, but this game isn't about 100% reality for me. It's a game so it's a version of reality, it's a simulation, and things are often "represented" and characatured in a Sims format, which is why that visual distinction becomes important. So I agree about using some stereotypes to get the ideas across for the different lifestages.

Talking Teenagers | EA Forums

56 Replies

hestiah23
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago
I agree with you OP @bethyGrace . The "teens" in TS4 are baby faced adults. They don't have much significance in the game and barely have any interesting teen-specific activities. I'll bring over what I mentioned in another thread:

What teens need:

- More shenanigans/pranks/mischief
- Influencing others or dares.
- Autonomously runs away if neglected. A temporary event - existed in TS2 https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/Running_away
- Even more extracurricular activities (arts & crafts, sports, catering, science club, chess club, book club, etc.)
- Enroll in private school (children too. I also expected this to come with Discover University for an additional scholarship)
- Outside school events. Science fairs anyone?... Teen bake sale, school bazaars...

Just a few things on top of my head.

For those who don’t want to click the link and read about teen runaways:

Spoiler
A teen Sim can run away from the household in The Sims 2 when the particular teen has negative relationships with the other members of the household and has few or no other friends. When a teen is preparing to leave, a message will pop up in the upper-right hand corner letting the player know. Then, the teen either walks or runs off of the lot. The memory associated with a teen running away is usually red but may also be green depending on the Sim and their relationship with the teen. While running away, a runaway icon will appear in their picture. Being gone does not affect things like school grades.
astridentanja
6 years ago
"Babykittyjade;c-17385196" wrote:
"bethyGrace;c-17384170" wrote:
"Babykittyjade;c-17383394" wrote:
I heard a lot of people say teens in sims 3 looked more like teens but I just cant see it? I tried making some myself just to test it our, plus I looked at pictures online and NONE of them looked more like teens besides the height or serious cc added. I actually think look wise you can get more younger looking teens in sims4 it just takes a few tricks which I'm getting the hang of. Lately I've had more success as learn. Plus I use height slider.

I'm a bit confused by what point you're making here? haha. Are you saying that you use a height slider in the Sims 4 and it helps your teens to look more realistic? ... Cos that is just supporting the idea that they ought to be shorter, which was my original point haha.

Interesting to read that a lot of you aren't bothered by it though. I have to admit that it doesn't stop me from playing the game (obviously) but I still feel like the life-stage could be overhauled and the game would be much better.

Or perhaps if we got "pre-teens"?

It's crazy how huge the jump was from The Sims 1 to the Sims 2, with the life stages and aging and everything it introduced. I guess I'm hungry for bigger innovation, more risks and bigger jumps forward from the dev team. I totally understand that I'm talking about a very different time there, with super different technologies making things possible, but I'm sick of the "less less and less" content and gameplay we seem to be getting with this franchise compared to days gone by.

To be more clear I only use height slider on 3 specific teens to make them shorter because I don't believe all teens should be short either. In real life teens come all sizes. And to be fair I use it on ALL ages of my sims to get varying degrees of height from average to extra tall including kids and toddlers. Just like in real life. So I would honestly not like teens to come short by standard.

My point was that in sims3 teens did not look like teens face wise as many people claim,in my opinion. And I have an easier time making them in sims 4. I just use the height slider for the three I want to look the youngest and shortest.

However,I would be open to a teen overhaul with many of the suggestions people have here to make them more distinguishable. ?

In Sims 3 my teens clearly look different than they look as adults (face wise). Whether that’s a teen look or not could lead to long and fruitless discussions (my males usually aren’t very attractive as teens in the game, they sure don’t look like their adult version), but you can see a clear difference. In Sims 4 they seem to have chosen for an older teen, so the difference simply is less clear. Height wise they’re the same, outfit wise they’re the same and facial wise they are. Not only real life teens come all sizes, real life people in all life stages come all sizes. That realistic detail is not in the game, there are no height sliders. To use that as an argument to defend the teen problem described here, sounds like explaining away an issue that has only one cause: they didn’t want to bother with more animations and more clothing. They didn’t want to bother. Four life stages in the game are practically identical, they just have different labels. As for long teens in comparison to adults, that’s not a biological thing. That’s circumstantial and individual. But a teen will always be shorter than him- or herself as an adult. For Sims 4 they decided to jump from an 8 year old to an 18 year old because it was easier. Not because it was more realistic.
Cinebar
6 years ago
It is a problem or we wouldn't have had to demand a tag on teens so we would know their age before we had our Sims flirt with one only to find out they were under age. Needing the tag says it all.
dianed485
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago
They look so much more realistic ! Also both teens in the second render look like they're not the same age, which is something I would like, because teens right now look more 16-18, so your kid sims go from say, looking 8 to looking 17 when they age up....what a gap !! Also I have a family that has two teen girls, but I want them not to look the same age, one is supposed to be 16, the other 14.

"bethyGrace;c-17374953" wrote:
https://www.pngkey.com/png/detail/797-7970727_sims-4-parenthood-family.png

In this render, they've made an effort to make the teenager look shorter to add that visual distinction, and for my money the family looks 10x more realistic that way.

https://preview.redd.it/8g4mb1eg0wb31.png?width=960&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=3a48a228f6947ffb4a7062a91a19ebf1482bbca9

Another example...
Felicity_Bane
6 years ago
"Hestia;c-17385450" wrote:
I agree with you OP @bethyGrace . The "teens" in TS4 are baby faced adults. They don't have much significance in the game and barely have any interesting teen-specific activities. I'll bring over what I mentioned in another thread:

What teens need:

- More shenanigans/pranks/mischief
- Influencing others or dares.
- Autonomously runs away if neglected. A temporary event - existed in TS2 https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/Running_away
- Even more extracurricular activities (arts & crafts, sports, catering, science club, chess club, book club, etc.)
- Enroll in private school (children too. I also expected this to come with Discover University for an additional scholarship)
- Outside school events. Science fairs anyone?... Teen bake sale, school bazaars...

Just a few things on top of my head.

For those who don’t want to click the link and read about teen runaways:

Spoiler
A teen Sim can run away from the household in The Sims 2 when the particular teen has negative relationships with the other members of the household and has few or no other friends. When a teen is preparing to leave, a message will pop up in the upper-right hand corner letting the player know. Then, the teen either walks or runs off of the lot. The memory associated with a teen running away is usually red but may also be green depending on the Sim and their relationship with the teen. While running away, a runaway icon will appear in their picture. Being gone does not affect things like school grades.

If you're lucky they're baby face adults. I had one sim family, when the girl aged up to teen, she looked older than her mom. When the game was first released, there wasn't even the tag telling you they were a teen and people were upset about this. So Maxis made them "different" by adding a tag below their names when you hover over them. Like, the least effort solution possible, but at least they did it I suppose.
Movotti
New Spectator
6 years ago
In general, the look of teens, and their height works for me.
I love that they have access to the same clothing as adults. Teens often dress the same as young adults in the real world, making it harder to tell who is under 18, and who is over. What I would like, is more school uniform options. Components of uniforms, rather than ready built outfits. I want one up, one down socks. Maryjane school shoes for teens (and older). Knee length check skirts, and some of the same, that are too short, because in the real world, that's what you see on real teens, uniforms that they're growing out of. I want knee length shorts for the boys, half tucked in shirts, with and without crooked ties. I want proper neat uniform shirts, with the tie perfectly straight. Over-sized blazers, ones that are too small, ones that fit just right, ones with stains and pushed up sleeves. I want ugly school jumpers (sweaters as some weirdos call them), woolly and itchy, and the vest version too. I want to be able to create a class of 12 or so students, and not have any two look exactly the same, yet all be wearing the same uniform.
I want teens who slouch all the time, I want teens who stand up straight. I want more visual personality for my teens.

"Pamtastic72;c-17373971" wrote:

1. So...my point was, that Parenthood offered some game mechanics that make teens separate from others age groups and that at least in my game I find I have enough assets to further distinguish them by how I style them.

2. That if teens were a separate height category that they would suffer from the same CAS droughts that plague children and toddlers.

I agree with this.
Parenthood was a massive step in the right direction, but some of what it added should have been in the game from the start.
A separate height would also effect interactions, so we'd have fewer for teens, just as there are fewer for children and toddlers. Having teens the same height as adults streamlines what the developers add to the game.

"Hestia;c-17385450" wrote:

What teens need:

- More shenanigans/pranks/mischief
- Influencing others or dares.
- Autonomously runs away if neglected. A temporary event - existed in TS2 https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/Running_away
- Even more extracurricular activities (arts & crafts, sports, catering, science club, chess club, book club, etc.)
- Enroll in private school (children too. I also expected this to come with Discover University for an additional scholarship)
- Outside school events. Science fairs anyone?... Teen bake sale, school bazaars...

Yep. It's the lack of interactions, or actions that have consequences that is really reducing the game play of teens.

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Talking Teenagers

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