We need more than 3 CAS traits per sim
I'm increasingly of the opinion that either:
1) Each trait needs to have more depth to it (which is potentially a lot of polishing work to do)
2) CAS trait slot is increased from 3 for adults to 5 (bit of UI tweaking, but could make a lot of difference with little time investment required, comparatively).
Reason being, many of the traits are rather shallow in how they impact the sim's behavior. So you pick 3, but it doesn't distinguish that much from another sim you make. I think if it was expanded to 5, that would help a lot with the existing choices being shallow. Instead of getting 3 limited-depth traits, you'd get 5, making it an overall more impactful combination of traits that gives the sim more overall character depth. In other words, you're potentially improving depth simply by increasing the number of trait slots.
Furthermore, there are 4 types of CAS traits (Emotional, Hobbies, Lifestyle, and Social) so it would make more sense if you can choose at least one of each of these, if that's the way you want to build a character. For this reason alone, I might suggest 4 instead of 5, except that the design of the UI seems pretty full already and it might require a more involved approach to make 4 look sensible rather than 5.
With that in mind, I put together a mockup of how the UI could theoretically be modified to have 5 instead of 3.
https://i.imgur.com/4PiJvAi.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/oY7IWU8.jpg
I'd also recommend, along with this, changing the Child slots to 2 and Teen to 3, to fit with the extended number for adults.
Unfortunately, there's no way for me to test this idea effectively, cause I can't really get in and modify the UI itself. Maybe it'd help with depth as I think or maybe it'd be profoundly disliked and damage the game.
But I think it'd be a relatively low investment thing to try and see what it does for the game in some internal playtesting, if nothing else. Especially as the game ages and the number of hours logged by players goes up, variety is increasingly important for keeping people interested. And if this could help with it, while requiring little investment, I'd say that's an opportunity to seize.
(Side note: If there are concerns about changing the game this late in, you could theoretically create an option that enables or disables expanded trait slots. More involved, but certainly a safer bet.)
1) Each trait needs to have more depth to it (which is potentially a lot of polishing work to do)
2) CAS trait slot is increased from 3 for adults to 5 (bit of UI tweaking, but could make a lot of difference with little time investment required, comparatively).
Reason being, many of the traits are rather shallow in how they impact the sim's behavior. So you pick 3, but it doesn't distinguish that much from another sim you make. I think if it was expanded to 5, that would help a lot with the existing choices being shallow. Instead of getting 3 limited-depth traits, you'd get 5, making it an overall more impactful combination of traits that gives the sim more overall character depth. In other words, you're potentially improving depth simply by increasing the number of trait slots.
Furthermore, there are 4 types of CAS traits (Emotional, Hobbies, Lifestyle, and Social) so it would make more sense if you can choose at least one of each of these, if that's the way you want to build a character. For this reason alone, I might suggest 4 instead of 5, except that the design of the UI seems pretty full already and it might require a more involved approach to make 4 look sensible rather than 5.
With that in mind, I put together a mockup of how the UI could theoretically be modified to have 5 instead of 3.
https://i.imgur.com/4PiJvAi.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/oY7IWU8.jpg
I'd also recommend, along with this, changing the Child slots to 2 and Teen to 3, to fit with the extended number for adults.
Unfortunately, there's no way for me to test this idea effectively, cause I can't really get in and modify the UI itself. Maybe it'd help with depth as I think or maybe it'd be profoundly disliked and damage the game.
But I think it'd be a relatively low investment thing to try and see what it does for the game in some internal playtesting, if nothing else. Especially as the game ages and the number of hours logged by players goes up, variety is increasingly important for keeping people interested. And if this could help with it, while requiring little investment, I'd say that's an opportunity to seize.
(Side note: If there are concerns about changing the game this late in, you could theoretically create an option that enables or disables expanded trait slots. More involved, but certainly a safer bet.)
