Sims 411 - Forum Feedback, August 19th

Sul Sul Simmers!

Here's my feedback on what I think needs adding to the base game to add depth. :)

1. Smarter Artificial Intelligence (AI)

• Players need smarter and improved AI into the base game. Our sims should feel “alive”, vibrant and spontaneous. Spontaneous doesn’t always need to be associated with autonomy or free will.
  
• More dedicated and improved coding needs to go into our sims and the game to add consequences, complexity, levels of difficulty bring life to a life simulation game.
  
• Improved path-finding - stairs, platforms, shortest, most appropriate path to a destination, sims not cancelling a command because another sim is in the way - they could pass by them or shoo them away.
  
• Sims that are starving, exhausted, lacking in certain needs should not stop to complain if a command is queued to resolve it, they should follow through with the command instead.
  
• Ultimately our sims should act smarter and display more character.
  
• A life simulation game should be shown through animations, facial expressions, personality, quirks, habits, lifestyles, achieving or failing goals, consequences, building or destroying relationships and friendships, life and death, the life stages between those, advancements in careers, aspirations and goals.
  

2. Story Progression

• Adding story progression will allow worlds to feel more alive and interesting.

• Toggle off to disable this feature entirely.
  

Toggle on features include:

• Relationships
  
• Friendships
  
• Marriage
  
• Babies
  
• Clubs replenish
  
• Sims moving in/out worlds / filling up households
  
• Ageing for non-played sims
  
• Ageing for household
  

… and more

3. Adding and Fixing of NPC’s
Fixing:

• NPC’s need to truly feel unplayable that they cannot be added to families; additionally we shouldn’t be able to enter CAS and remove a costume and find a base sim underneath. It breaks immersion. Otherwise NPC’s are just like other townies and are no fun.
  

Adding:

• Burglars
  
• Repo-man
  
• Conman
  
• Social Bunny
  
• Social worker
  

… and more

• The addition of these sims will add consequences in our game play and make the game feel unique and interesting.
  

4. Add Memories

• Sims should remember significant instances in their lifetime.
  
• Ability to autonomously recall memories and have dreams / nightmares about memories
  
• Memories can be expanded according to the base game and packs.
  
• Memories can be perceived as negative, positive or neutral
  

Memories should include but are not limited to:

• First kiss
  
• Who taught them to walk / potty / talk
  
• Death of a loved one
  
• Birth
  
• Marriage
  
• Divorce
  
• Career Promotion / Demotion
  
• Achieving their aspirations
  

… and more

5. Add Wants & Fears

• I personally feel the Whims should be done away with and replaced with Wants and Fears.
  
• They should be influenced by a sim's aspirations and personality traits, likes/dislikes, career and much more. They need to stay relevant to the sim.
  
• Ability to re-roll wants and fears to ensure it doesn’t become stale / repetitive.
  
• Wants and Fears can be added based on packs
  

6. Add an Attraction / Chemistry System

• Ability to select turn on / offs in Create a Sim
  
• Scope the room feature to look for a potential sim/s to interact with
  
• Turn on / offs can affect relationships and friendships and either make it easier or harder for the player to build said relationships / friendships
  
• Sims that fulfill turn ons / offs will have it displayed in the relationship panels
  
• These can be expanded based on packs.
  

Examples of Turn on / offs

• Hair
  
• Clothing
  
• Body Type / Fitness
  
• Makeup
  
• Accessories
  
• Hygiene / Smell
  
• Employment Status
  
• Personality traits
  

… and more

7. Add Cut scenes

• Adds greater immersion and depth
  
• Allows players to develop a personal connection to their sims
  
• Adds significance to what’s happening in the moment
  

8. Additional Traits, Career Options, Aspirations, Likes & Dislikes

• More traits, careers, aspirations, likes and dislikes need to be added to the basegame.
  
• More need added per pack.
  
• Progress bar for aspirations without hovering over it. This makes it visible and acts as a reminder to complete goals for said aspiration.
  
• More likes & dislikes:
  
• I see the likes and dislikes as the interests from The Sims 2, I feel more could be added to include topics of conversations from politics, toys, aliens, sci-fi which can ultimately affect relationships.
  

9. Adding a Touch of Realism

• Please re-introduce the school bus for students and work vehicles.
  
• By adding this touch of realism, we can avoid sims running off the lots and disappearing into thin air.
  
• Students with bad or good grades need to react differently, students who received a good grade will show excitement and parents will congratulate them, they may gleefully run to their parents or shy away.
  
• Those with bad grades will show sadness or disappointment - unless they’re a slacker and in that case they won’t mind.
  
• Cheating sims needs more consequences. Their partners who catch them need to react by confronting them - either through arguing or fighting.
  
• Their kids needs to react to this as well.
  
• Cuddling for couples whilst sleeping - this can also depend how strong their friendship / relationship is.
  

10. Improved Personalities

• Trait combinations should open up probabilities of certain things happening.
  
• E.g. A sim that is a slob should not eat, sleep and sit the same way a neat sim would.
  

11. Improve The Family Trees

• The family tree’s need to be fleshed out so we are able to see more family members instead of just the closest direct relatives.
  
• The tree should be fleshed out to show cousins, siblings, great-grandparents and more.
  
• The culling in-game needs to be better adjusted as not to interfere with family trees.
  

12. Improve Toddlers, Kids & Teens

• The life states for toddlers, kids and teens need improving, teens are just adults and kids are still limited in aspirations and skills.
  
• New interactions and animations need to be added in to breathe life into their life stage.
  
• Teens need to behave like teens and kids shouldn’t just be more capable toddlers.
  
• Siblings need to have different interactions between each other, they should be able to bicker, give each other noogies for instance.
  
• When teens become young adults - they need the option to announce they’re moving out which will affect the parents memories and emotion, their siblings might cry or be happy they’re moving away.
  
• Teens should be able to run away or sneak out
  
• Toddlers need more interactions between each other, they should be able to do more playful or mean interactions
  
• Stealing each other’s bottles/food/toys, play make believe etc.
  

13. Improve Babies

• Suggestions to combat babies being “objects”:
  

• The player will be presented with an option from family members / current household members to visit the new addition - adds significance
  
• Ability to see the babies needs
  
• Base game clothing options - pacifiers, beanies, onesies
  
• Changing table to change clothes and diapers
  
• Bathe in sink option
  
• Play with baby - probability of the baby vomiting on the person
  
• Sway and hum baby to sleep
  
• Ability to burp the baby
  

14. Improve Emotions

• Emotions need to be reworked to be expressed through the sims themselves. Their emotion needs to be expressed in their actions and their facial expressions. The most expression I see is through my sim's image and not the sim themselves. They may look excited, sad, flirty, confident in their image but in reality my sim’s facial expressions are blank, empty and appear void of emotion.
  
• The effect of emotions need to be adjusted as well, if a sim passes and the household feels sad, this emotion can be easily and sometimes unintentionally overridden with happier emotions. There needs to be a better balance in effect to allow sims to feel a range of emotions without one emotion overriding another.
  

15. Improving Needs

• Needs shouldn’t deteriorate so quickly in game - this includes all life stages.
  
• In order to have more fulfilling days where our sims can engage in activities, skills or take care of their aspirations, needs need to deteriorate slower.
  

16. Improving Relationships

• Certain relationship types should open up options not otherwise available. Reason being is that emotions are fleeting.
  
• E.g. If sims are flirty, in a given moment, they can perform more flirtatious commands. Limit this to sims with a high romantic relationship - it creates an incentive to play and build relationships. This should apply to various types of relationships - friendly, enemy, acquaintance, best friends, soul mates.
  
• Soulmates shouldn’t be “getting to know one another”, they should rather have deep conversations and ask about each other's day.
  
• Enemies should be able to perform more mischievous commands and mean commands, whereas acquaintances shouldn’t be arguing or performing mean interactions - that is unless they greeted each other rudely.
  
• Sims should not be able to meet and marry within a few sim hours of meeting. Relationships and friendships need to be built and maintained, attraction and chemistry need to be taken into account.
  

17. Improve the Interaction Menus

• Example being, getting to know someone and asking what their favourite colour is is essentially the same thing. Getting to know someone will slowly allow the sims/players to learn what their favourite colour, music or type of decor is. This will add meaning back to the getting to know interaction and perhaps open up the deep conversation interaction.
  
• It further adds incentives to building relationships in game.
  
• This can be applied to many other interactions in the menu - too many interactions have the same animation.
  

18. Improved CAS Abilities

• More options under household relationships.
  
• Abilities to add skills, career options etc.
  

19. Integration, integration, integration

• Features in-game, such as emotions, memories, personality traits etc need to be fully integrated with one another.
  
• This all comes back to better coding, smarter and improved AI. Every feature has some effect one another in game and plays a role on how our sims act, think, speak, walk, and function in day-to-day life.
  

Thanks to the sims team for opening up this discussion thread and allowing us the opportunity to speak. Much appreciated! :)

Edited to fix spelling errors, add bullet points where there weren't and to add one last point listed number 19.