What Sims 4 got wrong and brings me back to Sims 3. Can still be fixed!

I play the Sims 4, mostly to tell aka direct stories.

On occasion when I play without my story direction, I'm constantly reminded how limited the "active world" of the sims 4 for creating its own drama.

Everything revolves around your active household, the outside world literally resets based on where you go.

For example go to a bar, it will fill with random sims. Change households, go to same bar it resets with new sims, ejecting the ones there vs a living world where Sims go along their daily lives no matter WHERE you are. For example you'd never see an employed sim walking past your house in the sims 3 - sims 4?

ALL the time.

So why is this important? Because it makes the world more immersive, more alive rather then a doll house that only has the life I put into it.

I was HEAVILY reminded of this difference last night when I jumped into the Sims 3 and had some crazy random drama unfold that could never take place in the Sims 4, which makes me sad and I wanted to illustrate below.

Quick backstory, I made girl named Sam (short for samantha) who went to university, met rapper boy who tries to cheat on his gf with her - but Sam won't have that even if he's a celebrity. Not her style.

Sam comes home to hidden springs and meets another boy she really digs. Meanwhile the game pushers "tourists" from other worlds to visitor your current world, its totally random when and who it sends but if you've met sims in other worlds they retain their relationship meters if they come to visit so their arent totally strangers.

So I've been playing this couple for the better part of the fall now. They go on a date at a lookout far above Hidden Springs.

https://i.imgur.com/7ljtGq1.jpg

As her BF seeks washroom, I direct her to look in telescope to pass time. What I do not expect is her weird reaction. Now thats just sims being weird but for fun I decide, ok lets see where she would be looking based on where the telescope is/line of sight. I take the camera zooming it out from the lookout to lets say...central park far below.

https://i.imgur.com/IX6yQWw.gif

That guy? At the end of lens chatting up a girl? Ya thats rapper boy from university visiting hidden springs. LIKE what are the chances I'd have her look through the telescope at this moment and see him? From a story tellers point of view, I could see her being like what the PLUM is he doing in hidden springs?!

First off the VERY fact that I have two sims on a date while rapper boy is ALL the way across the map trying to pick up women is something in itself and would NEVER happen in the sims 4.

https://i.imgur.com/s12oW0L.jpg

I LOVE THAT about Sims 3, that this is even happening so far apart from where my sims are and the CHANCES it would be him of ALL sims!?

So anyway time goes on, I don't see rapper sim anymore and winter comes around a few days later and Sams boyfriend proposes.

What happens literally after this very special moment?! TOTALLY randomly rapper boy shows up again - and FLIRTS with her? RIGHT after she's been engaged.

https://i.imgur.com/OK7whGA.jpg

I laughed so hard at the crazy and this is what the Sims 4 is missing. This random active world craziness.

I LITERALLY could not have asked for better drama and the best drama for me is when I'm not planning it.

It doesn't get more real then this...if they could add this into the Sims 4 still I'd be in heaven.

Oh random chaos...

https://i.imgur.com/S7Naegn.gif

Scobren
5 years ago
I think the Sims 4 is more narcissistic than egocentric. Here is the difference. "Although egocentrism and narcissism appear similar, they are not the same. A person who is egocentric believes they are the center of attention, like a narcissist, but does not receive gratification by one's own admiration. Both egotists and narcissists are people whose egos are greatly influenced by the approval of others, while for egocentrists this may or may not be true." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egocentrism

Sims in the Sims 4 are constantly needing approval of other Sims and in a positive manner. The signs really fit the Sims. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/conditions/narcissistic-personality-disorder

"A grandiose sense of self-importance
Preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
Belief that one is special and can only be understood by or associate with special people or institutions
A need for excessive admiration
A sense of entitlement (to special treatment)
Exploitation of others
A lack of empathy
Envy of others or the belief that one is the object of envy
Arrogant, haughty behavior or attitudes"

That is why Sims don't have empathy for when a Sim dies. Sims are designed to be narcissistic and the constant need for them to be positive only. "Treatment for narcissistic personality disorder can be challenging because people with this condition present with a great deal of grandiosity and defensiveness, which makes it difficult for them to acknowledge problems and vulnerabilities." So anything to make Sims vulnerable and to tackle problems is ignored. Why there isn't a lot of negative traits too. Pretty much making Sims into virtual dictators. I kind of wish instead of the Sims 4 the game could be called the Sims Dictators because it is a completely different game from the previous iterations and doesn't deserve to be associated with the other three games. It is nothing like them with stories or anything. Then again calling it MySims 2 would be more fitting too since they are just stretched out version of them in a similar safe space.
L33L4
5 years ago
@TOLKIEN - this is what makes me miss sims 2 &3. The story progression where everyone lived their own lives and moving on with relationships instead of being single and dying alone. Then the memories from sims 2 gave the game so much depth

After that last survey with all the relationship questions I got my hopes up so high for a great update to help the relationships in the game that it’s desperately lacking.
Cinebar
5 years ago
TS2 did this all the time, too. It was great. TS4 is just a flash pan game when it comes to depth and the complexity of the AI of TS2 or even TS3.

Long story short, in TS2 who would come by the house when ex wife was just about to kiss her first date (after divorce) but her cad of an ex husband...to stand there and watch...what is remarkable about that is because yes, TS2 has walkbys..but never at 2:00 A.M. Those walkbys are coded to happen during the day. That's why so many love the other games more. We all know that was a highly unusal thing and why it's the one game we all know is the top of heap when it comes to AI, and glad TS3 did some of it, complex AI, too.
filipomel
New Spectator
5 years ago
I want this kind of drama too, I have mods like Sacraficial’s Life’s Drama and Life’s Tragedies to help add some of that drama back into the game, and although these are great mods it isn’t the same if the game just did it on its own with its own sims flare.
Scobren
5 years ago
Yeah I agree. The gameplay and emotions are predictable and limited as the CAS and world design in the Sims 4 right now. Honestly I blame Glassbox simulation engine why the game is as limited as it is. Basically many of the issues Sims 4 is facing are similar to how SimCity2013 was treated. "SimCity was also criticized for the size of the area the player is given to build a city; critics have noted it to be significantly smaller than what was available in previous games. Maxis responded to this criticism by stating that this was a deliberate compromise to ensure that the game would run smoothly on the majority of users' computers."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimCity_(2013_video_game)

So honestly why I think they keep the trait slots limited and number of emotions limited and different interactions happening at once. Their engine can't handle it and they want to keep it low for players 10 plus old computers.
karon_shiruba
5 years ago
@Sk8rblaze its not about open world, its the story progression. Also, that was a problem in SIms 3 at some points, like when you visited a hot spot on town and there was like 2/3 sims at most, because all the rest of the town was at work or sleeping.
texxx78
5 years ago
"Sk8rblaze;c-17402057" wrote:

There was a time when I believed keeping the closed lot format would benefit the game and weigh out the negatives, however, EA has proven me wrong. We have a closed world and Sims whose intelligence and personalities are more limited compared to their predecessors along with a lot of bugs, gameplay without depth, and so on. In the end, we're playing a game with a world system that is 20 years old, and I say that because even The Sims 2's closed worlds provided far more creative control and benefits than TS4.

This is how i feel exactly. At first i convinced me that a closed world was what i needed, as i was unable to play 3 with all the lagging. But i thought that it was what we had to pay to keep having a game full of content, with good ai... i was ok with that. But it isn't what we got. We lost so much!
Sharooonia
5 years ago
I don't think it can or will be fixed. I think it's designed the way it is on purpose sadly.
MidnightAura86
New Spectator
5 years ago
I don’t think the devs see this as broken. The Sims 4 doesn’t want to create that kind of “drama” that the Sims 3 and sims 2 do so well. I don’t think it’s necessarily linked to a open world because the sims 2 does it too. Although of course in the example given it was the open world that caused it.

Sims 4 doesn’t want to do things like that in the vanilla game. It’s a story telling device with a huge focus on being a safe space for people.
Frn0731
New Traveler
5 years ago
The quirkey things I miss : I remember in sims 2 there were two sims in a dorm that did not like each other and would break into a fight every time they would meet. Remember the Cow mascot ? always causing mischief ? Or when sims would break out and do the smussle on their own.
If you used the telescope during the day there was a chance that a neighbour would come over and complain about being spyed on.
Mrs. Crumplebottom, lighning bolts to show attraction....
The incompetent nanny and the french maid.... ah ...memories

Oh one more thing , a weird glitch in the sims1 when the DJ always came to work naked because I placed a shower on the lot.