Rene Speculation: Aspirations, Wants & Fears, and LTWs

We've gone through a lot of changes from Sims 2-4, so there is an opportunity here to return to the favorite design choices over the year while dumping what people dislike. That's what I speculate Rene will do.

In this reply:
(1) ASPIRATION METER
(2) ASPIRATIONS
(3) LIFETIME WANTS
(4) WANTS & FEARS

(1) ASPIRATION METER
First of all, the aspiration meter. Sure, there should be an option for the segment of the fanbase who really don't want consequences and just want to use the Sims game as a storytelling/ movie-making tool. But the Aspiration Meter added consequences and benefits to Wants & Fears. These are some of the historic consequences.




(2) ASPIRATIONS
Then we have aspirations themselves. Unfortunately, the definition of this has been conflated over the generations with Lifetime Wants. Sims 4 basically calls their Lifetime Wants "aspirations" and lacks the Sims 2 style aspirations entirely. We really need both. Aspirations are general orientations for your Sims regarding what they want to get out of life and what they value doing and achieving. They should be semi-permanent and last a lifetime.



I speculate that Rene has the opportunity to push the ball further beyond Pleasure, Family, Romance, Knowledge, Fortune, and Popularity. Something related to Creativity and another related to Crafting makes a lot of sense given the new gameplay elements of the Sims 3 and 4. These high-level aspirations should directly affect the types and Wants & Fears rolled, impacting the identity of the Sim. We'll get to that later.

(3) LIFETIME WANTS
Lifetime Wants are another feature I speculate Project Rene will add, similar to what we have in the Sims 4. I just hope it's not instead of everything else I've written about. Again, note the misnomer of "aspiration" here above the left-hand scroll box that includes "Renaissance Sim," "Archeology Scholar" and so forth. What EA really means to describe these things are Lifetime Wants. These LTWs fall under specific aspirations. Some LTWs could apply to multiple aspirations.



(4) WANTS & FEARS
Now we get to the core of the system. The Wants & Fears themselves. First of all, they are relevant to your Sims and the aspiration they chose. This is important so they don't feel generic. I speculate Project Rene will return to Fears being "rolled" just like wants in the Sims 2 rather than this new unpopular and buggy system they created of Fears developing like traits. In the first image, you will see the beloved "slot machine" aesthetic with the Wants & Fears visually represented via icons. They are refreshed and rerolled over time, a dynamism that many people love. The second image explains in theory how Wants & Fears could be generated.




Finally, Wants & Fears should be fun because they grow in challenge in intensity. Some wants are Power Wants with a starburst symbol so you know they are major impactful wants that are difficult to achieve. Wants often build on top of previously completed wants to add a sort of progression and achievement to the game.

I wonder how Rene is going to handle Wants & Fears given how it was (differently) implemented into the Sims 4 and the update doesn't seem to be popular.

Let's hope that the development team has learned from this misstep and reimplements Wants & Fears, tied to an aspiration, like it was in the Sims 2.

Since Life by you teased the possibility to edit everything to my liking (a Quest editor was mentioned specifically), I do not think I will accept anything more restrictive than the Sims 4 version of aspirations and whims (before Fears got re-added).

That said, yes, Project Rene should indeed take the Sims 2 route for aspirations. That way customers will get two distinct products with some overlap in that they are the same genre, but that attract very different types of players. Part of what makes Sims 4 difficult to play is that at the moment the devs have to perform an eggshell dance between the desires of all the different playstyles (mine and yours seem to be on or close to the opposites of the scale) and as a result the game is suboptimal for everyone.

Yes exactly!

First, Sims 5 (Rene) should allow you to select 1 of 8 core aspirations in CAS:

Creativity

Deviance

Exploration

Family

Fortune

Knowledge

Romance

Popularity


Each of these 8 core aspirations should have unique Wants and Fears dedicated to that aspiration. These aspirations should define the core desires of the Sims. Fulfilling small wants and fears should cause larger Power Wants and Fears to be rolled. Playing Sims of each of these core aspirations should feel different. They should NOT constantly roll generic, small wants (e.g. drink juice, have garden salad, talk with sim). Make them meaningful!

Second, after choosing your aspiration in CAS, you can select a Lifetime Want. These large wants should have checklist Milestones that build up to achieve, just like how they work in Sims 4.

If your sim is the Family aspiration, then you get options like:

• Big Happy Family
  
• Super Parent
  
• Successful Lineage
  
• Vampire Family
  

Let's not conflate Aspirations, Lifetime Wants, and Wants & Fears. They all work together and coexist to provide depth.
@SimGuruAzure @SimGuruAce @SimGuruArvin @SimGuruBrent @SimGuruDrake @SimGuruFrost @SimGuruGraham @SimGuruGrant @SimGuruGeorge @SimGuruLyndsay @SimGuruNinja @SimGuruNick @SimGuruRomeo Hopefully, this makes sense! :)

I really want them to go back to the wants and fears from ts2, for Rene, The wants and fears for ts4 dont feel like wants and fears lol.

yeah same. I typically use the wants from TS2/3 as a way to drive some of my sims' actions on their day to day. It gives purpose and makes them feel real with their own needs! The fear system from TS2 was awesome. It was really cool how there was consequence if the fear happened and you lost life aspiration points.
I also prefer the aspiration system from TS3. I love the career driven ones, but also the ones that offered smaller things but still felt like an achievement, like maxing skill levels.

Lunar_Britney on X created a mockup of what a Wants and Fears system with aspiration meter and Lifetime Wish could look like. Great work!

https://twitter.com/lunar_britney/status/1744820395843183022

https://twitter.com/lunar_britney/status/1744820397806063635

https://twitter.com/lunar_britney/status/1744820400377221316

https://twitter.com/lunar_britney/status/1744820402671554683

Very important that Rene offers something for us wants-based players.

^ This above is probably my number 1 feature for Rene.

The core 8 or so Aspirations, Lifetime Wants related to the aspiration, and the robust Sims 2-style Wants and Fears.

I hope it doesn't get lost in development with all of the multiplayer features being prioritized.

Unfortunately, we'll probably hear about this stuff at the tail end of Project Rene. For me, this is make-or-break.

Paralives hasn't shown this yet. Life By You has not focused on this. inZOI has shown "LIfetime Wants" only - what Sims 4 mistakenly calls aspirations. This is not sufficient.