How they could handle the personality in Sim creation of Sims 5.
Just 10 suggestions, for purely the personality part of a Sim in character creation, how it could be improved.
1. Give each sim a fear/flaw.
Kind of borrowing from Sims Medieval here with it's fatal flaws. It ensures every sim has a weakness, and like in sims medieval there could be a way to get rid of it. It would mean some traits would pretty much end up in this category like clumsy, hot headed, insomniac, coward, etc.
2. Bring back likes and dislikes but make it affect their free choices.
Should be fixed in Sims 4 too by the way, if a Sim dislikes something, they should never do it on their own. applies to traits too if they determine that, like lazy sims not doing work on their own. On the other hand if they like an activity, music or something, they will actively look to engage with it. They won't start dancing to music they hate, they will switch to their favourite music and start dancing instead.
3. Give each sim 1 lifestyle.
The idea of lifestyles is nice, but is very broken in Sims 4. I'd suggest making lifestyles like sort of a super trait that has greater impact and might override parts of some traits and others could be outright incompatible.
For example lazy could be a lifestyle. Sims with it could be sitting back or laying back more relaxed on couches and chairs and could have various unique lazy interactions. Able to do various chores quickly but poorly, like if they clean a shower it gets dirty again faster and they won't clean on their own.
Environmentalist could also be a lifestyle. Same for being a geek, a sports enthusiast, a rebel, neat freak, prudish, super extrovert and being a snob.
There could be several things for each lifestyle that will always give satisfaction points when you do them, like sleeping in for a lazy sim, doing super nerdy stuff for a geek, playing sports for a sports enthusiast, etc.
4. Masculine/feminine slider.
Could be five options here that would affect interactions. Sims could do them very masculine, slightly masculine, neutral, slightly feminine or very feminine. Would apply to all genders. It's purely for how they do their interactions, it would not affect sexual orientation or anything else.
Like you could have a straight guy who is a rebel, bro and brave, but also very feminine in his movements.
Or a gay guy who checks off all the stereotypical interests, yet is very masculine in his interactions.
5. Sexual orientation.
It would pretty much be like a trait, exclusively to do with their sexuality. It would be something with a few sliders since it's kind of a spectrum.
Like they could be exclusively into men or women, favour one a little or a lot, or be bisexual which could also work as pansexual to not make it too complicated. Could be 7 options on this slider ranging from straight to gay.
Can be a slider for interest in intimacy as well, allowing sims to be asexual or woohoo addicted.
And finally, a romantic slider with several options for how romantic the sim is, how they might express their love and will respond to others attempts to woo them. Two aromantic sims could be perfect for each other, they would not get on their knee to propose or anything and never make a big deal of whatever they do. Their love would be more unspoken but still there. An overly romantic sim would likely scare them off.
Hopeless romantic, obsessive romantic, determined to create a big family, preferring one night stands and nothing serious.. It would all be covered here, as well as of course some middle of the road option for average sims.
6. Starting off with a few skills.
This would be determined by traits, lifestyle and other things. Like athletic could give two points in fitness straight away, mechanic could give two points in handiness, artistic could give 1 point in all artistic skills, etc. And it would all stack with each other, so it could be possible to maybe start with 5 skill points in something.
This could be something you could disable in options if you don't want it though.
7. Relation to animals.
Also something you can set for every sim. This submenu would list all animals in the game and lets you select if your sim hates them, is allergic, avoids them, is neutral about them, likes them or loves them. A fear of animals could be a flaw that would apply to all animals and could make it impossible to set relationships in this submenu.
8. Relation to super naturals.
Would work the same as animals, possibly without the allergy option but with the option to fear specific ones and also if they might have romantic interest in them.
9. Interest in technology.
This could be a slider, and could allow for you to properly portray older sims who don't keep up with it and don't even carry a phone to being technology addicted to the point the sim is always on their phone.
Technophobe would be the only option without a phone, and they could be harder to reach. Might still have a house phone though. The technology inept could have a phone but never use it on their own.
10. Ultimate dream.
This could be optional and normally sims could get pop ups suggesting what it might be for children or teens, or some even only getting it as a young adult. This would be something bigger than any aspiration and would not have multiple steps. It would be more like sims 2 aspirations, a single thing that gives a huge amount of satisfaction points as well as another reward.
Sims can only ever have one ultimate dream, so also only one of the rewards.
The older sims get without it being fulfilled, the more unhappy they might get about that though, hence it's optional and some sims are easily content. Sims could also have a bigger chance of a midlife crisis if it's left unfulfilled and their midlife crisis could be more extreme.
The final stage of every full career/proffession would be available as an ultimate dream.
Other ultimate dreams could be having 10 children, mastering all skills, build a sentient robot, obtain all available diplomas, doing a super extreme sports thing that might kill them if not properly prepared, obtain a legendary treasure, become a billionaire, become super famous, woohoo with the same sim in every possible location, etc.
These ultimate dreams could also be updated depending on installed expansions, like if an expansion adds new woohoo locations it could update that ultimate dream. The amount of satisfaction points for completing it could also be adjusted if need be, some could give a crazy amount such as mastering all skills.
In a way this would allow for some interesting achievement hunting too.
1. Give each sim a fear/flaw.
Kind of borrowing from Sims Medieval here with it's fatal flaws. It ensures every sim has a weakness, and like in sims medieval there could be a way to get rid of it. It would mean some traits would pretty much end up in this category like clumsy, hot headed, insomniac, coward, etc.
2. Bring back likes and dislikes but make it affect their free choices.
Should be fixed in Sims 4 too by the way, if a Sim dislikes something, they should never do it on their own. applies to traits too if they determine that, like lazy sims not doing work on their own. On the other hand if they like an activity, music or something, they will actively look to engage with it. They won't start dancing to music they hate, they will switch to their favourite music and start dancing instead.
3. Give each sim 1 lifestyle.
The idea of lifestyles is nice, but is very broken in Sims 4. I'd suggest making lifestyles like sort of a super trait that has greater impact and might override parts of some traits and others could be outright incompatible.
For example lazy could be a lifestyle. Sims with it could be sitting back or laying back more relaxed on couches and chairs and could have various unique lazy interactions. Able to do various chores quickly but poorly, like if they clean a shower it gets dirty again faster and they won't clean on their own.
Environmentalist could also be a lifestyle. Same for being a geek, a sports enthusiast, a rebel, neat freak, prudish, super extrovert and being a snob.
There could be several things for each lifestyle that will always give satisfaction points when you do them, like sleeping in for a lazy sim, doing super nerdy stuff for a geek, playing sports for a sports enthusiast, etc.
4. Masculine/feminine slider.
Could be five options here that would affect interactions. Sims could do them very masculine, slightly masculine, neutral, slightly feminine or very feminine. Would apply to all genders. It's purely for how they do their interactions, it would not affect sexual orientation or anything else.
Like you could have a straight guy who is a rebel, bro and brave, but also very feminine in his movements.
Or a gay guy who checks off all the stereotypical interests, yet is very masculine in his interactions.
5. Sexual orientation.
It would pretty much be like a trait, exclusively to do with their sexuality. It would be something with a few sliders since it's kind of a spectrum.
Like they could be exclusively into men or women, favour one a little or a lot, or be bisexual which could also work as pansexual to not make it too complicated. Could be 7 options on this slider ranging from straight to gay.
Can be a slider for interest in intimacy as well, allowing sims to be asexual or woohoo addicted.
And finally, a romantic slider with several options for how romantic the sim is, how they might express their love and will respond to others attempts to woo them. Two aromantic sims could be perfect for each other, they would not get on their knee to propose or anything and never make a big deal of whatever they do. Their love would be more unspoken but still there. An overly romantic sim would likely scare them off.
Hopeless romantic, obsessive romantic, determined to create a big family, preferring one night stands and nothing serious.. It would all be covered here, as well as of course some middle of the road option for average sims.
6. Starting off with a few skills.
This would be determined by traits, lifestyle and other things. Like athletic could give two points in fitness straight away, mechanic could give two points in handiness, artistic could give 1 point in all artistic skills, etc. And it would all stack with each other, so it could be possible to maybe start with 5 skill points in something.
This could be something you could disable in options if you don't want it though.
7. Relation to animals.
Also something you can set for every sim. This submenu would list all animals in the game and lets you select if your sim hates them, is allergic, avoids them, is neutral about them, likes them or loves them. A fear of animals could be a flaw that would apply to all animals and could make it impossible to set relationships in this submenu.
8. Relation to super naturals.
Would work the same as animals, possibly without the allergy option but with the option to fear specific ones and also if they might have romantic interest in them.
9. Interest in technology.
This could be a slider, and could allow for you to properly portray older sims who don't keep up with it and don't even carry a phone to being technology addicted to the point the sim is always on their phone.
Technophobe would be the only option without a phone, and they could be harder to reach. Might still have a house phone though. The technology inept could have a phone but never use it on their own.
10. Ultimate dream.
This could be optional and normally sims could get pop ups suggesting what it might be for children or teens, or some even only getting it as a young adult. This would be something bigger than any aspiration and would not have multiple steps. It would be more like sims 2 aspirations, a single thing that gives a huge amount of satisfaction points as well as another reward.
Sims can only ever have one ultimate dream, so also only one of the rewards.
The older sims get without it being fulfilled, the more unhappy they might get about that though, hence it's optional and some sims are easily content. Sims could also have a bigger chance of a midlife crisis if it's left unfulfilled and their midlife crisis could be more extreme.
The final stage of every full career/proffession would be available as an ultimate dream.
Other ultimate dreams could be having 10 children, mastering all skills, build a sentient robot, obtain all available diplomas, doing a super extreme sports thing that might kill them if not properly prepared, obtain a legendary treasure, become a billionaire, become super famous, woohoo with the same sim in every possible location, etc.
These ultimate dreams could also be updated depending on installed expansions, like if an expansion adds new woohoo locations it could update that ultimate dream. The amount of satisfaction points for completing it could also be adjusted if need be, some could give a crazy amount such as mastering all skills.
In a way this would allow for some interesting achievement hunting too.
