Toggle Coming For Ailments 8/19 (New Blog)
Update: New Blog
https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/news/ailments-dev-diary
Ailment Tuning in The Sims 4 Enchanted By Nature
Sul Sul! This is Nate, lead Designer of the Enchanted by Nature Expansion Pack. I’m here to talk a little bit about Ailments, how we developed them, and the game settings toggle we’re adding to give more agency to choose how Ailments manifest in your game.
Our hope with Ailments was to create interesting situations that ask you to change up how you play. The way they affect a Sim’s life can look and feel different depending on how you meet it: it can be a bump in the road, a chance to flex the Apothecary skill, or perhaps an unexpected benefit! For instance, Greenie Meanie’s symptoms can strain relationships, but also provide a Gardening skill boost. If you’re a Sim who spends more time with plants than other Sims, it’s actually quite helpful!
Living up to this aspiration of challenge and reward for each of the broad array of Ailments was no small task and I’m proud of the team’s hard work. At the same time, we heard your feedback loud and clear that Ailments were happening too often!
We’re going beyond the recent patch, which reduced the chance of contagious Ailments spread across the game, to also add a new settings toggle which disables Ailment spread completely. Find it by going to the Main Menu and selecting Game Options > Pack Settings. Under the section for Enchanted by Nature, you’ll see the settings toggle Enable Ailment Spread. When this is disabled, Ailments can no longer jump from one Sim to another and Sims have no chance of picking up Ailments in their day-to-day life. Sims with current Ailments will still have them, which you can wait out or cure through whichever method you prefer. You can change the toggle back and forth at any time. Check out the FAQ for more details!
We hope that adding this toggle setting will help you find new and more satisfying ways to incorporate Enchanted by Nature in your play and storytelling. Now if you’ll excuse me, my Sims have a date to press some flowers then take a nap in the forest. Dag Dag!
F.A.Q.
What will I see with this new Ailments Spread toggle?
The Ailment Spread toggle is enabled by default. If you do nothing, Ailments will continue working the same way (including the reduced chance of spreading added by the recent patch.)
What will happen in my save if I choose to disable Ailments Spread?
Sims won’t get Ailments from any contagious source. This means no chance of Ailments from day-to-day activity like going to work or high school, or from Foraging. It also means no chance of picking up an Ailment from being around a Sim who has one.
Ailments that are present in your save when you disable the toggle will still be there. Sims will still need to wait it out or seek a cure, but no new Ailments will occur due to spread.
If I disable the toggle, what happens to other features in this Expansion Pack that use Ailments?
Everything still works the same, just that Ailments are no longer contagious! Here are the details:
- Fairy Sims’ Cure or Apply Ailment Ability is unchanged. You can still direct Fairies to give Ailments to other Sims. While controlling a Sim with an Ailment, you can still try asking a friendly Fairy to cure you.
- For the Naturopath Career, clients coming to your Sim’s home will still have Ailments that need treatment.
- You can still craft Ailment cures at the Apothecary Table to sell, treat Naturopath clients, etc.
- Sims who become Very Imbalanced will still develop an Ailment, but it can’t spread to anyone else. (If you’d prefer not to play with Ailments this way, you can disable the Enable Balance & Imbalance toggle on this same settings panel!)
So if I disable both Ailments Spread and Balance & Imbalance, will I see any Ailments in my game?
The only Ailments you’ll see are:
- Ailments that Sims already had at the moment you disable the toggle.
- Ailments you direct your Sims to put on others, via Fairies’ Cure or Apply Ailment Ability or PlantSim’s Poison Kiss interaction.
- Ailments on Sims that visit when you opt for your Naturopath to receive clients at home.
