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Theorist
Original Poster
#1 Old 16th May 2013 at 6:40 PM
Default Sim-Wants mechanic. What could be new?
In the Sims 2, EA/Maxis introduced the Wants/Fears mechanic. Letting players know what their either wanted to happen or didn't - leading to either positive memories or negitive ones.
Sims 3 took a small direction change, letting players see Sims' Hopes but also changed their day-to-day moods with moodlets.

What do you think the Sims 4 will bring to the table?

//

Personally, I didn't find the moodlet system that interactive. Every time I played I was hovering over to find out that my Sim didn't like the particular smell of the room or felt a "buzz" from Coffee, just cluttering the interface compared to the Moods bars that I was used to using in TS1 and TS2. I loved saving wishes and starting their worst nightmares with my TS2 sims because it was as though the sims themselves were creating best- and worst-case scenarios for their own lives.. bringing their personalities to life! TS3 just fell short of that, but maybe I just haven't played it enough?


BodyShopped /// ShoofleedSims
♦ // Jack.exe // ♦
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Lab Assistant
#2 Old 16th May 2013 at 8:27 PM
One of the reasons I don't play TS3 is because i miss the aspirations and wants so much. I always feel like playing the same sims over and over again in TS3.
And I miss the fears, too. I miss all the romance sims who were frightened of babies :c

Now thinking about it, I don't even get why they introduced this whole moodlet-stuff at all. Because it actually sucks.

I think it would be great if sims had a general "purpose" in their lifes. Aspirations were great for that and I hope something similar will be in TS4.

And I want memories back, too!
Lab Assistant
#3 Old 16th May 2013 at 8:42 PM
i want platinum mood back! i like the moodlets though and i would like them to bring back fears. i like the coward trait but them fainting over and over again gets annoying. i wish they maybe fainted once and then maybe run to another room instead of fainting over and over again. some of the traits dont really do anything so they need to do away with them or make them do something. and favorite color... it has no purpose, they need to either get rid of that or make it mean something, maybe like a room more if its painted in the fav color. some moods should last a bit longer and other shorter. kids should color and draw and hang the pictures on the fridge or come home from school with an awesome grade on an assignment and hang it on the fridge. i remember when sims could cheer for the child doing good in school.
Scholar
#4 Old 16th May 2013 at 9:32 PM
I definitely want fears back -- a single fear can tell me more about a sim than a hundred wants ever could. I have one sim in TS2 who had a fear of going to school, and he dreams of becoming a self-accomplished artist (not doing too well on that front at the moment).

I don't take too much notice of moodlets unless my sim is really happy or really sad, or I can quickly see an annoying red moodlet in their sea of green (yeah, my sims tend to be pretty happy). I find that moodlets can be a bit of a shortcut -- sims can react to something via a moodlet or a thought bubble rather than expressing it as an action. Yeah, sometimes the fits sims threw in TS2 were annoying, but sometimes it almost seems that if I didn't have the moodlets, I wouldn't know if a sim cared or not about something.
Instructor
#5 Old 16th May 2013 at 9:56 PM
The problem with moodlets is that they're ultimately useless, and the ease of getting positive moodlets very quickly makes managing a sim's mood, again, pointless. The wish system is also pretty much broken--whereas in TS2, a sim's aspiration and personality very directly affected their wants, in TS3 buying a domino table with automatically make every sim wish to play. It's a system that, especially combined with a lack of fears, functions as a win button with no relevance to our sims.

I think that the wants and fears system should be the basis for TS4. It simply has way more depth.
Alchemist
#6 Old 16th May 2013 at 11:48 PM
Hmm, I distinctly remember be very annoyed in TS2 by the constant wishes to go rollerskating just because it was spring and go fishing in the summer, even with Sims who didn't have some personality related reason to want to do those things. TS2 wants were just as spammy about new stuff as TS3's. Outside of those wishes everyone gets to try ep related activities, the wishes in TS3 are very personality based. Bookworm Sims roll a lot of book related wishes that others don't, while Athletic Sims roll more wishes to workout. And there are wishes tied to certain traits, like the neurotic wishes to wash hands/brush teeth several times and check the stove.

I'd love to have fears back to offset the wishes, and I agree it's too easy in TS3 to have a ton of positive moodlets that makes things to easy. Everything in TS3 is little too easy, and I hope they balance TS4 better.

As for playing the same Sim over and over again, that how I felt about TS2's 6 aspirations. Romance Sims always feared commitment and babies. There was no way to play a romantic oriented Sim who wasn't, well, a lothario. In TS3, the traits split the Romance Sim type into different mix and match elements. A Flirty Hopeless Romantic is different from a Flirty Sim with Commitment Issues, and that's different from an Unflirty Sim with Commitment Issues. And Dislikes Children is its own trait, which does not have to come along with being sexually hyperactive. So you can have a Genius Bookworm who Dislikes Children.
It is true that there are a lot of useless 'flavor' traits like Clumsy or Never Nude, and if you make a Sim with only those traits, they might not have much of a personality. (Now I'm tempted to make one and see what sorts of wishes they roll and what they choose to do.) I'd like to see TS4 be smarter with the traits and have less that don't do anything, and do more with the ones they have. But I definitely don't want to go back to 6 aspirations.
Lab Assistant
#7 Old 17th May 2013 at 3:39 AM
I prefer the wants/fears/aspirations. The moodlets annoyed me to the point of no return (literally - they were my biggest problem, second only to pudding faces, shiny clothes, bad storytelling mode, and online-y-ness -- I haven't gone back to TS3). And while it *was* difficult to make a romance sim that had commitments, or a grilled cheese sim with depth, it was possible, nonetheless, and it felt very rewarding (and frustrating, but also rewarding).

What I'd like is a combination of both games: maybe a wants and fears-based system with more sub-traits for each category, or a traits-type thing with aspirations rather than moodlets. Which is pretty close to the same thing, but oh well.

I really miss lifetime aspirations. I always got a happy feeling when they were achieved. And the platinum tombstone was a nice reminder of that achievement.

TS2 Challenge Addict.
Alchemist
#8 Old 17th May 2013 at 4:33 AM
TS3 has a lifetime aspiration, actually. And there are three types of tombstones that get better depending on how much overall happiness was achieved in a lifetime, determined by number of points accrued rather than just having achieved the LTW, though obviously the large number of points you get from your lifetime want certainly helps. I also like that you can choose your LTW. I remember needing a mod to reroll in TS2 them if i didn't like the one I got. And there's a larger variety of them. I particularly like the ones that are for maxing two particular skills (Charisma + Guitar, or Athletic+ Logic, or Renaissance Sim, to max 3 skills of your choice.) And there are new ones added with just about every EP. I still haven't done them all.

I forget when it happened, but at some point we got the ability to select LTWs that aren't related to your traits. Which allows you to get some of the frustratingly rewarding feeling of forcing your TS2 Romance Sim into a happy marriage with lots of babies. I saw a Sim (an NPC I moved into the town) who had the Dislikes Children trait plus the LTW to raise 5 kids.

I'm certainly not saying that playing Sims 2 wasn't rewarding, I was just responding to the assertion that the 6 aspirations in TS2 somehow provides more variety in Sim personalities than the traits system of TS3. I've played both games for years, and there is limit to what you can do with 6 aspirations, even with the secondary aspiration added in FT. While there are some really lame traits in TS3, you can more finely tune your Sims' personalities with them than you could with aspirations.
What I want to see in TS4 is for them to push that system even farther.
As it is now, the trait effects just sort of pile on. You can have a Flirty, Family-Oriented, Neurotic, Athletic Bookworm, and get wishes, idles and interactions related to those traits, but they don't combine into anything new. Like a wish to read a book about sports (Athletic+Bookworm) or a wish to check in on the children (Family-Oriented+Neurotic). I'd like to see something more like that in TS4.
Lab Assistant
#9 Old 17th May 2013 at 5:11 AM
Oh wow memory fail

I apologize -- that happens more often than I want it to.

Also, agreed about hoping that TS4 pushes the traits thing even further. But I also hope that they don't give us any bogus traits, like daredevil. It was a half-hearted effort on their part.

TS2 Challenge Addict.
Alchemist
#10 Old 17th May 2013 at 2:38 PM
Daredevil was half-hearted, but it's not entirely bogus. Sims with that trait are actually immune to fire, so it does something, and is useful for the firefighter career. Daredevil Sims, left on their own, will play with fire. I know, that's not a huge thing, but it is one of those little things that I often see Sims 2 players claim that Sims 3 lacks. And that playing with fire action is one of the reasons I still use that trait from time to time. Along with the wish they sometimes roll to be in a fire. But, I also don't like loading my Sims up with positive traits that make things extra easy for them, or too many strong personality traits all the time, I do like to add a few 'flavor' traits to the mix that have minimal impact, but come with their own little quirks.
But, yes, there is a lot more that could be done with traits like that one, or clumsy. They have traits that positively impact skill gain (Artistic, Virtuoso, Athletic, Charismatic), but none that negatively impact them. They got rid of 'Stupid' and made it 'Absent-Minded', which basically just drops queue to 'duh' at things. It really should have made it harder to learn skills. (Though I've read it is supposed to impact Uni performance. I hope that's true)
And there's nothing like say 'tin ear' as an opposite to virtuoso that would make learning instruments harder.
'Clumsy' could me more than a tendency to trip (it's actually one of my favorite 'flavor' traits just for that), it could negatively impact learning skills or progressing in careers that require dexterity or physical prowess, like Athletic or Crime, or Acrobat. The Nraas Woohooer mod gives a special moodlet to clumsy Sims after woohoo sometimes, anxiety about performance, which I just love. But I know a lot of you TS2 players hate the moodlets so that won't mean much to you, but I really really love that one.

I'd actually like to see something like the 'fatal flaw' they had in TSM come to TS4, where you have to choose one negative trait that will actually impact your Sim's ability to get ahead.
While there are traits in TS3 that some might consider negative, only few actually have negative effect. Hot-Headed and Mean-spirited Sims will tank their relationships with other Sims if left to socialize autonomously. But it's also very easy for a player to counterract that by makng their Sim have positive interactions. It would be more interesting if Sims with those traits would have a harder time getting positive results from friendly interactions. Or if Sims who were recently insulted by that Sim were to reject attempts to interact positively for a time. They do have something like that with the ''humiliated' moodlet. Your Sim needs to apologize before they can progress. But that apology does seem kind of cheap to me, and too easy for hot-headed or mean-spiritd Sims to get away with their behavior and still have friends.
Forum Resident
#11 Old 17th May 2013 at 7:43 PM
What I miss is that in sims 2, sims could choose something they dislike in other sims.

That is something they should expand on, allowing you to choose five things your sim likes, and five things your sim dislikes. Could be pretty much anything chosen from a list just like traits are now.

Your sim could hate supernaturals, sports, art, formal wear and fire, while liking family, computers, working in law enforcement, cars and blonde hair.
Instantly you'd have a sim with more personality than whatever they did in sims 2 and 3 combined.

Now, added to those likes and dislikes, you could also have a life long dream and traits.
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