The base game should totally focus on daily life; I'm with the OP here.
What it should contain imho:
- Life stages: baby, toddler, child, teen, young adult, adult, elder
- CAS: The ability to create all life stages in CAS, clothing especially for teens and elders (and only available to them!), the possibility to give teens, young adults, adults and elders some skill points and more simoleons to start with, color wheel, different clothing styles (poor, middle class, high society)
- Traits: ambitious, angler, artistic, athletic, bookworm, bro, charismatic, childish, clumsy, commitment issues, couch potato, dance machine, dislikes children, eco-friendly, evil, geek, family-oriented, flirty, friendly, frugal, genius, good, great kisser, green thumb, handy, hates the outdoors, heavy sleeper, hopeless romantic, hot-headed, irrestistable, jealous, kleptomaniac, light sleeper, loner, loves the outdoors, lucky, mooch, natural cook, neat, night owl, over emotional, party animal, perfectionist, rebellious, snob, unflirty, unlucky, vegetarian, virtuoso
Toddlers get one trait, children two, teens three, young adults four (in-game: up to six, acquired through bonus traits), adults four (in-game: up to eight, acquired through bonus traits) and elders five (in-game: up to nine, acquired through bonus traits).
- Bonus traits: Special occasions in your life give you the possibilty to give your Sim a bonus trait (e.g. getting married; having a first child; reaching the top of your career; retirement).
- Likes and dislikes: Choose your Sims' favorite color, dish, music, turn ons and turn offs.
- Lot traits: great acoustics, fast internet, convival, natural light, bracing breezes, teen neighborhood, chef's kitchen, mean vibe, home studio, sunny aspect, penny pixies, party place, filthy, romantic aura, great soil, on the ley-line, cheap, pricey, peace and quiet
- Skills: Charisma, Cooking, Dancing, Fitness, Gardening, Guitar, Handiness, Fishing, Painting, Wood working
- Careers: Athlete, Babysitter (part-time), Barista (part-time), Conservationist (part-time), Criminal, Culinary, Fishermen (part-time), Gardener (semi-open career), Manual Labor, Military, Social Media (stay at home career) / all part time jobs (plus social media) are also available for teenagers.
- Housing: Sims can live in apartments or houses.
- Jobs: Your Sims can use their smartphones to find jobs but, however, there are some (low) requirements for jobs; e.g. athlete: 2 skill points in fitness and 1 skill point in charisma; culinary; 2 skill points in cooking and 1 skill point in charisma. You have to apply for jobs (your Sim goes into a rabbit hole, this takes about an in-game hour and your Sims comes out of it; two days later they will get a notification if they got the job or not). This will also be influenced by your Sims' mood.
- NPCs: Babysitter, maid, firefighter, landlord, police and burglar.
