I think one of the problems with The Sims franchise when it comes to challenge, and is something that's been happening since The Sims 3, is the fact that the game has become excessively and extremely easy with each new generation and packs released.
When it comes to challenges in The Sims 4, the first thing you need to urgently review is the simoleon earning system, and everything that goes with it.
It is EXTREMELY easy to get high simoleon values in the game legitimately without using cheats. It's possible to earn a lot of money through small interactions, or interactions with specific objects, or with careers, or with other types of activities in the game, whether it's painting or planting, or whatever.
The game has gotten easier and less challenging, and sometimes that worries me a lot, especially when I think about future releases.
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Global Economy System
One thing that I think would be SUPER cool, and that could be COMPLETELY OPTIONAL, is if you guys added a global economy system to the game, which is directly controlled by you, from Maxis.
With the global economy system, you at Maxis could control the price of Build/Buy Mode objects and items. There could be times when objects in general are costing cheaper, or more expensive. Also, you could create "inflation" or "crisis times" where everything is costing MUCH more than usual.
With this system, you could also control the amount of simoleons that can be gained from interactions/objects/activities. Example: one day I can sell a professional painting for a high price, but the next day sales will be paying lower prices.
Anyway, I really believe that a global economy system, where the price of things is never fixed, and which can still count on economic crisis, could bring a VERY fun level of challenge to the game, because then we players would never know what we can expect, because one day things can be very cheap, but the next they can be VERY expensive.
I even imagine how funny and fun it would be go play The Sims 4 and find out that we are in a week of economic crisis, and everything is costing absurdly expensive. This leaves room for players to explore new ways to play The Sims 4 and deal financial issues that are being caused by the global economy online system.
Imagine if, for example, a global crisis happens, and a person is forced to live in an off-grid lot because everything is too expensive?
Obviously, the global economy system would be FULLY optional. No one would be forced to gamble having to deal with any high prices, inflation, or low simoleon earnings from activities or sales of things.
I start from the following principle: players who want a higher level of challenge will enable the global economy system, and will play with it enabled. It would still be possible to use simoleons cheats, but I believe that those who really want challenge will not use simoleons cheats naturally.
A global economy system could create a unique level of challenge in the franchise.
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The return of The Sims 2 Wants and Fears system, and the consequences if we don't fulfill the wants, or fulfill the fear.
The Sims 4 is an extremely sandbox game. And this has caused a great lack of challenge and depth.
The Sims 2 had a Wishes and Fears system that was AMAZING. If we didn't eventually fulfill some of our Sims' wishes, they could end up going crazy. And if we completed their fears, they would look bad and could also go crazy, but the results were fun, especially when we completed a fear accidentally because of something that happened.
In The Sims 3, Wishes and Fears were removed, and now what we had were sorts of "missions" that we could do or not, because they were optional, you didn't have to do them if you didn't want to.
And the same thing happened in The Sims 4. Fulfilling whims is completely optional, and there is no consequence to the sim if the player wishes not to fulfill them. Fulfilling wishes basically just gave you points to spend in a shop, and that was it.
The Sims 2 was fun because it BROUGHT challenges and gameplay, while The Sims 4 is about looking for challenges and gameplay.
You should bring back The Sims 2 Wishes and Fears, and MOSTLY the fears.
ADDON:
I LOVED The Sims 2 Wants and Fears roulette animation when we completed some Want or Fear. You guys should bring something like that too, it would be really cool.
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