I'm not really sure why H.O.W. saw themselves in that post. I found it to be very generalized.

queziacristina, holy cow those are great points and ideas!

Although, I'll take it a step further and disagree with H.O.W. that, as far as programming and sims, traits and emotions are not the same as reactions. Actions and Reactions are the physical manifestation of emotions. For sims, that link is extremely important and kind of makes them one and the same for the player. Without that connection, sims emotions would be nothing more than the emo-portrait.

The emotions that crop up are supposed to be heavily influenced by the traits assigned. Without a set of emotions directly influenced by traits, the connection is meaningless. In fact, any one of these without the other two are meaningless, so I'd say, one broken means they're all broken. This is why queziacristina's ideas are so wonderful because for each reaction there's very little question which emotion and trait it comes from.

At least, this is what I think of when I think sims "emotions!"

Well it was almost like that, before, in TS2 and TS3... You would think that with improved emotion system of TS4 there will be more to it, but it's totally opposite.
This thread seems to be turning into a "What would I like to see in TS4 and what would I like to throw out of it"... and Here I go:

-Memories that game actually auto generates itself (with picture, like in TS3, but not as haotic as those)... Then our sims will be able to put that pictured memory on their wall or table and after some time reminsce about those, which gives them the emotion boost.

-3 usual, tiny traits that affect some minor animations and functionallity of the sims (like squeamish, shy, clumsy...) and 2 main traits that define their inner personality and being (practically, extremes taken from personality points in TS2).

-3 usual, everyday wishes, 1 traits related wish (main traits would affect those), 1 aspirational wish (those give the most of the aspiration points, and if you get them enough you can buy new aspirational trait) and 1 emotionally involved wish (like those in the game right now). The emotional wishes should be giving emotional points so that your sim could buy emotional potions, or if he/she gets enough of those he/she can then buy a device that alows him to change anyones emotion any time (like voodoo doll).

This and that what you said would make an ultimately good sims game!!!

I really miss the nice memory system in Sims 2. And it could be so awesome with the new emotional system. But right now the memories are just another tool to manipulate rather then something to give your Sims personality.

I'm not surprised. I've been feeling like this was the case for a while.

Anyone given the Emotional Overcharge mod a whirl? Figured this might actually help for those of us that think the emotions are lackluster in this game.

That mod took free will away from my sims... When this mod was in my game, sims would take care of their needs very rarely, and then they would usually die

TS2 memories, wants, and fears were amazing (though I've been told that even that memory system was buggy as hell. I didn't experience any of those bugs though) the aspirations on the other hand....are handled better in TS4, I'll admit.

Whoa. Might wanna report that to the mod creator, if you haven't already. Yikes.

I've had issues with TS2 memories. Like replicated memories, or memories that didn't belong, stuff like that. But there are mods like (I think Pescado's or BoilingOil's?) memory fixes and whatnot.

And instead of fixing and updating TS2 memories they just decided it was a useles feature, not worth their sweat, so they deleted it. Why don't they have motivation anymore, I want to see old sims charm with updated technology and new features (not excluding the old, important ones)... what happened with Maxis... it became one with EA so much that they started acting the same way?!?

And siletka... thanks for posting the link.. it seems the mod was updated and fixed... I would never bother to check, so thanks. I'm going to try it out now :D

Well it was also on 3 but you had to "influence" them in both games...



don't we all? Sims 3 "picture" memories each time they went to the market or square while ignoring children growing up nicely or the first words were a pain. I loved the "learned to potty from X", or "Sarah had an accident in date" memories.

I wouldn't totally agree with this, I don't think it's that simple - I think it's just due to human nature.

People who like the game will just naturally focus on all the things they like, and tend to minimize the things they don't; people who dislike the game tend to focus more on all the things they dislike and don't often mention the things they actually like (chances are there are a few things they do like, they just don't outweigh the negatives).

It kind of reminds me of that saying about when you like someone, they can do no wrong, and when you dislike someone, they seldom seem to do anything right.

Just to clarify, edited to add that I do agree that I don't think StopUsingMyUsername's post was directed toward H.O.W.

If people want some good traits to make their sim's personality little bit more effective, there are custom made traits that put sims in a different default emotions and some even make them immune to some emotions XD I tried it out and it was more fun to play with... but reactions are still bad.

I wonder if anyone also noticed that:
-We had 4 wishes (and with proper expansions sometimes even more), 3 fears, lifetime wish
-There were only 4 wishes without fears in TS3 and one (this time changeable) lifetime wish
-In TS4 there are only 3 wishes (usually one emotional) and a set of goals you HAVE to guide your sim trough if you want to fullfill his dream, and If u get bored you can change them, but it still has no point. Those goals are telling us how to play and wish-aspiration system is dumbed down...

BTW: I looove modding community here... so many great mods and fixes that make EA's shit playable and keeping the sims franchise alive for so many years :D

The smile on the female blonde's face when she's waiting for him to stop messing up the plumbing made me think of Harley Quinn. Animated version.

Or it could be like is the dress blue and black or white and gold? It's all in one's perception (and the dress IS blue and black).

@mixa97sr You're welcome! Let us know if it's less buggy / works out for you. I don't have much time today to play anything, so I can't test it ASAP, sadly.

I also love MTS' modding community. I get 95% of all my mods from here. Couldn't live without MTS.

Anyway I sent my suggestions to SimGuru Daniel just in case... one can dream.

ETA: I meant getting these reactions/moodlets in a patch.

Yeah, man can only dream to be a videogame designer, but as the one of their bestselling games (and you can say pricey one too) is soo poorely designed that even I can think of a 10 times better designed game... Now I think I've a chance!

It needs to happen. If it happens I'll consider paying for the game <.<;; ;;>.>

From the whole "emotions!" campaign I knew that it would end up basically being a buff/debuff system. I was not at all surprised by this. I think the biggest shock to me was how poorly the sims react to their environment and each other. I started noticing that about a week into playing with it. I can't really believe they didn't know this was a horrible mess well before launch. They knew and I doubt they will fix it, but it stumps me as to why it was even a problem. I mean ACR was a very popular mod in TS2. Why didn't they use that as "inspiration"? Face it EA the sims is a sandbox-y game. Let us have it.

I'm shocked, really. I didn't think it was THAT broken. I do wonder if the results would be the same with all the mods that enhances autonomy, maybe it's just that EA watered down too much the AI/reactions/bullshit.
They knew all that AI flaw and yet they released the game. They didn't put essential stuff as toddlers, pools, ghosts just to focus on... walk styles since now we now they didn't work shit on zomgemoshuns! I knew something was wrong when they said they removed the whoohoo skill and that they were agreeing to the watering down to Disney world to please the stupid sheeps! Now we're (6?) months after release and there's still no toddlers, and they keep saying they'll get to work?! I really really really don't think we'll ever get neither those tots, nor any work on the so called emotions.

I don't think they're in a fit state to work on anything right now, they're still in deep mourning for the loss of Ryan.

Same here, I doubt even this high end pc could endure the unmodded game without CTD's each time one random sim wants to go to its job. Specially on places like Twinbrook, Isla paradiso and lunar lakes... if it was not for mods i would had send Sims 3 to the bin instead of getting each expansion (and just missed a few SP's, yes i do have Katy perry infamous pack too).

Plus the sims 3 challenges forum also helps with the easy peasy game style of it.

However, Sims 4 resulted to be extremely boring, too boring that i preffer to play SCS than touching that thing aside the CAS screen (seriously, CAS is the only good stuff in sims 4, and for that the free demo is enough). Unless i get it for free OR i actually get payed for playing that i will get sims 4 again, i just used 21 hours of origin time and had enough "fun" (too much fun that i installed sim city societies back and played it a few minutes just to switch to Black and White 2).

I was trying so hard with sims 4 to find anything interesting but could not... as i said, the only good thing it has is CAS, but for playing dollcrafting there are other free games out of there (fkiss)

I just love the irony.

Before the game came out, I was calling out the devs for touting Emotions and Multi-tasking as the best thing ever, when to me it seemed like they dumbed down the subtle quirks and emotions in favor of blatantly telling you how they feel in a little panel.

I was laughed at and Disagree-d to death. AND NOW LOOK AT YOU. LOOK AT YOU. FIRES MAKE SIMS UNCOMFORTABLE AND NO ONE REACTS TO DEATH.

/eating irony with a knife and fork

What gets me is they put little details into the game to help with reactions/interactions. I mean when my female or male sims become pregnant they often squee and go tell their partner ASAP. Yet they won't react to a death or fire . It makes no sense. It also makes no sense when they add in those little details, but then don't go the whole way. I mean when my sims share big news I don't expect them to keep being able to share it over and over. It is like they "forget" about it. Just so dumb founded.

Let's not give them any attention, shall we?

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My main problem with Emotions (as in the "feature" to the bottom left) is that it totally feels like a cop-out. Why program reactions to sims causing chaos and being rude when you can simply make their picture look uncomfortable? Oh no, mom just died? Ehh. I'll go eat yogurt but my picture says I'm sad. It feels lazy. I expected more from a forth game in a series but expectations and EA don't go hand in hand.