First off I want to say thank you for letting us talk and for taking the time to listen, not only now but lately. We appreciate that you have brought us better skin colors, better POC hair, sentiments, and farming (farming is such a challenge and I love it). These are steps in the right direction and we are looking forward to a new pack refresh, townie makeovers, and future possibilities of more challenging gameplay!
Please note: I know that this is not an idea or request forum, so please note that all ideas under, or references to older games are there to give you a better picture of what I see as challenge in a game like the sims. I do understand that you can not please us all and that's ok. <3
LOT CHALLENGES
I love the recent addition of lot challenges and think this is a great addition to the game. I hope you'll keep adding to this as new content for the game is added. I'm imagining the following:
- bad neighborhood: chance of getting robbed?
- bad influence: Kids in this area have other interests than homework and will have a bad influence on your kids and their grades.
- UFO-sone: bigger risk of getting abducted by aliens
- bad air quality: risk of shortened life stages as young adult/adult/elder
- expensive neighborhood: all expenses doubles
TRAITS
I love the traits and would happily take more (but please, not the ones that just guide you through a pack). I also loved what you did with the traits overhaul and hope that the traits will have even more impact on our sims life in the future. Maybe trait could be inherited (like the sulani mana) in order to make it more challenging and not be able to always choose yourself.
LIKES AND DISLIKES
I love this addition and think the potential for challenge is huge. Please add all the missing activities, it would be great.
ATTRACTIONS
Attractions would add a lot of challenge to my gameplay because it would make the whole finding-a-partner thing harder. Maybe be potential husband doesn't like blondes? Or glasses? This could easily be added to the likes and dislikes in order to not need to make a new system for it.
WANTS AND FEARS
In Sims 2 we had wants and fears, which had a huge impact on my gameplay. Sometimes I played to please my sim, other times to do the opposite. By having wants and fears in-game you had more guidelines and therefore more challenges, even in relaxed play.
MEMORIES
In Sims 2 our sims had memories, either bad or good. This challenged us to keep our sims moods up, and to complete tasks as teaching our toddlers to walk, completing homework and promotions, and getting married. To make the first kiss a good memory was important and the same went for birthday parties.
BACK STORIES / LORE
Lore has been a long time request from many of us OG players and I'm happy you are taking a look into that now. The lore from the sims 2 was amazing, and all the backstories and the already established relationships made the gameplay a lot more challenging. The missing Bella Goth was enough for me to spend the entirety of the sims 2 searching for Bella Goth in Strangerville and even if that was not really an official challenge is was enough to keep me busy.
TEENS
Everybody knows about rebellious teens irl, but where are they in the sims 4? We want our teens to act out, sneak out of home, have home-alone parties, be brought home in a police car. Maybe the worst ones will be shipped off to military school? Or maybe you could reintroduce the private schools again? The effort i put into impressing the headmaster with my amazing dinners and entertainment back in the sims 2 will never be forgotten.
TODDLERS
Another life stage that potentially could add more challenge to the game. I love when they make a mess with paint, but I want more! I loved it when we had to teach them to walk, or when they could escape the cribs in the sims 2. I also loved that they used bottles, at least for a bit. In the sims 4 they seem way too independent.
ONE-SIDED RELATIONSHIPS
This could help with storytelling, with the lore, and add more challenge when building relationships in normal gameplay. Or maybe we could have long-term and short-term relations ship?
SURPRISING DEATHS
I love when my sims die unexpectedly, and I'm so happy that you keep adding new ways to die. Don't be afraid to add even more and make it more random. If my sims die by thunder during a family outing it really adds to the story, and ads challenge because my family all of a sudden just have one parent and in other words just one income.
SKILL BUILDING:
Right now, my sims gain its first skillbar in any skill the moment they start any activity. I think thats too easy. It should start on cero, and the sim should have to work to even get the first skill point.
LIFE CRISES
I know mental illness is something many people don't want in a sims game, I totally understand why. Still, I think that things like the social bunny, the shrink, the flour sack baby, and the imaginary friend all added to the feeling that your sims had hit rock bottom. It was a nice way of depicting something many of us have to go through without making it too realistic and challenges you to get your sim back on the right track
CHAOS
To sum up, I think I can say that I miss a bit of the chaos that I loved in sims 2. As soon as you open the game things started to happen, one way or another you had to navigate a number of different factors just to keep your sims life from being destroyed. I'm not at all asking you to recreate the game, but maybe keep these things in mind for future content.
PS: Please don't add mandatory story progression or challenges where occults attack your sims. Thank you <3
Community Manager
