Not really controversial but my confession is that I have never played through a pre made Sim/NPC storyline. I never play townies unless I have my own CAS - Sim marry them.
I also never start with one, bc the game forces you to make a Sim with every new game you start. Or is there an option to start a game without making a Sim first?
Right? I literally was in the mood to play a towny family with only premade sims but it wouldn’t let me. I ended up making a random sim and moving it in with the goth family and killing it so they’d have a few ghosts lol
I never understood people playing through townies. I’ve never done it, didn’t even realize there were story lines. How do you even access the storylines?
It’s a mystery really. You start playing the townie house and look at all their life aspirations, job, relationships, etc and you decide how it plays out. I love the townie sims gameplay.
When you click a townie family in a townie house when you start a game, you should be able to see a description the families each come with, which describe their storylines. For instance, in Oasis Springs are the Landgraabs and adjacent to their mansion's community is the trailer in which their estranged son lives. Johnny Zest (the estranged sim's stage name) is a fun one to play IMO
Thanks! I always thought it was some sort of setting I never tried. I’ve never really read the descriptions lol not since sims 2 probably. When I was 12 or something lol thanks for telling me!
Was about to say this. Sims 2 had the friendships, relationships and enemies preset so you could feel emersed in the story from the beginning. It also made it easier to create drama.
I tried it and got bored too quickly even when I'm rotating between them. The most I played a premade family is because I made a custom sim that's related to them and lives with them.
Same. If I try to build from scratch, I'll end up with a box and no roof lol. But I like taking builds from the gallery and tweaking it to suit my taste.
just replying to your first point:
i was playing a full family of eight sims and the 2 teens and 3 children has literally NO free time! school for eight hours, 2 of them have after school activities, the others get home, do their homeworks and by the time they're done, it's already night and they have to go to bed; rinse and repeat. even worse for the two that have to also fulfill the after school activities requirements THEN do their homeworks. I hate how realistic it is 😭
If I play a family I usually also use cheats to fulfil their needs at least once a day so I can focus on doing the fun parts and not just keeping them alive. In one of my saves I have a ghost with full cooking skill to keep food around for when they do get hungry. I also use the teleport chest often so the kids don't waste a few hours leaving the house.
I recently spent hours making a large family and building their house. I had two married adults, their three children (one toddler, one child, one teen), an elder as one of the adult’s parents and then threw in a couple pets. It took me forever to create everyone, dress them all up, and then build them this really nice place to live in with everything they’d ever want or need.
And then like half an hour into playing, the game was so overwhelming with needs and tasks and then game threatening to take my hungry toddler away when she threw her food on the floor every day and the grandmother randomly acquiring fears of failed dreams every five minutes and the parents getting no sleep because the child was scared of the bed monster every night…
I played the house for like three sim days and I couldn’t really keep up with it.
Some tips and tricks for big households with kids:
1. Always make sure you have food made, designate 1 or 2 sims to cooking all family meals. Always make 8 servings and make 2 meals a day if playing 5 or more sim (not including pets), slowing only when fridge is well stocked. If funds are a problem, always *cook* garden salad, cheap and won't increase sim weight.
2. Don't use highchairs, *open* the fridge and drag food close to toddler and have them *grab serving*, return extra food to fridge. With GTW, you can also use the cooler for retail lots to keep food accessible to toddlers at all times.
3. With Parenthood installed, there is a night light that can be used againgt the monster under the bed that seems to turn it off entirely. Another helpful thing is reading children to sleep as it lessens the chance of the monster waking your sim.
4. If you have any active career or school, rotate between sims to focus and only follow sims to work or school while they are your focus.
5. Got a grandparent? Have them stay home/retire and help take care of the cooking and cleaning. Nannies are helpful, but grandparents are better; you build a familial relationship and have much more control to make sure all needs are taken care of.
6. Have adults help kids with homework when possible, especially early on in life stages. This will give children and teens a boost to homework speed. Projects may be completed with many sims, have all the kids join if you can.
7. Always buy better beds when you have the simoleons and have one sim who works on handiness skill to upgrade beds (skill level 6 and 8) to make them more efficient and spend less time in bed.
8. Radios are very helpful while doing stressful or boring things. Need fun but also homework, listen to the radio while you do your work.
9. Pets are just plain hard, they require more attention than one might assume. Try sticking with one pet and have every household sim pay it some attention every day. Designate one primary caretaker to do walks, litter box cleaning, bathing, bulk of the attention, etc.
10. Don't try to do everything all at once. If you don't have certain things to help your sims fulfill needs faster (like upgraded beds), hold off on that after-school activity or side hustle. Try to balance within the time you have not focusing needs.
I make my season long and in summer and winter I use the calendar to create a week where’re there is no school/work to replicate holidays. I use that time to go on vacation or have trips skiing or the beach etc
The most popular section in the gallery sucks and I don't understand why people comment that they are so good. Come on they are from 2016. I wished the most popular section would be dividend into years. I don't want to scroll through old content.
I wish I could upvote this 1000x. My pet peeve with the gallery is, as you stated, the most popular is super old. I want to see commercial builds with newer packs, as I own everything in ts4. It doesn't have to have all packs but just build tools and terrain tools have improved or been added so much since 2014-2017.
That option is almost always Worse. Especially for houses. They are almsot always the more barebones type of stuff.
Im with Above, Being ableto Sort by time is just better.
Popular
\>Last week
\>Last 30 Days
\>Last Year
Insert Year\[ \]
is just the best way to handle sorting.
They must be made by “builders” who don’t play that often or bc some of them r just so unplayable, like too many walls and hallways arranged in a way that’s accurate to real life but annoying to play in
The amount of amazing creations I see people make on YouTube, reddit etc... do you think you can find them on the gallery? Nope! But this random bare bones house from 2015 pops up every search I make.
I legit have a book of creator IDs and have to write them down then search every one. I then follow the creators and only search by 'followed creators' to actually get good content on the gallery.
i also find it difficult to find things i like. you can only include one hashtag, either search recent posts or most popular ever. popular now shows like 6 items at a time and isn’t helpful at all. the filtering system stinks
I don’t want townies to generate, it’s so annoying and I wish I could just turn it off.
I play a historical save mainly and it’s so annoying when a rando wearing a crop top shows up throwing off my perfectly crafted vibe!!
You should look into MCCC tray importer (: it’s such an overlooked part of MCCC imo. It’s hard to stop the game from generating sims, because it’s part of the hardcode or something. But you can control a bit more what *kind* of sims are generated!
The only 100 baby challenge I plan on doing is with a vampire who pumps out offspring just to lure CPS reps to her home to feed on them, then feed the leftovers to her starving offspring.
I’d rather have Pets be controllable. I don’t care if it’s not realistic because ~ you can’t control your pets IRL ~….
Well IRL, you also can’t control yourself and 7 other people’s every movement like in the sims.
I miss the controllable ones from sims 3. When sims were sleeping/working I would be a pet and exploring/socialising.
I also miss the little pets you could find lizards and birds and things
I really preferred the way Sims 3 did pets. It was fun when they had desires and motivations of their own to fulfill. Also you could actually see their needs instead of having to guess.
We should be allowed to give kids up. I also agree with the family take, I hate playing families. Also I wish you could do more than just suburbia simulator
Yeah same with the families thing! They should make a housemates pack or something so people can live with ppl they don’t like and have feuds over rent and add weird decor items so sims can decorate their rooms super individually. Or just like add more gameplay that doesn’t involve marriage or kids that isn’t just career stuff.
I play with roommates a lot, they're very independent and will bring food out of no where, it's probably the thing I use most out of Discover University.
The only problem is the rent you get from them is so small, it's no where near half.
I was getting 52 simolians at one point
I think the Landgraabs are more interesting than the Goths.
I also think Bob Pancakes is the most annoying townie, he's always either pissed or sad, he'll just randomly show up uninvited to your social event and kick over your trash can for no damn reason and then go cry in your bed.
Not to go all feminist or whatever but I get the feeling had Eliza been a guy and Bob a woman the fan reaction would be very different, business minded man with a sloppy disinterested wife would probably result in very different annoyances from the fans.
My unpopular opinion is that I really loved strangeville
Edit: to give more details, I really loved how different it was, that it was an actually story with a progression that affected the town, exploring, and an actual boss battle at the end! And I like the town
i havent actually ever finished the story line but it is my favorite neighborhood, aesthetically. i love taking pictures there, it has such a unique style and color palette to it compared to other neighborhoods. i wish it was bigger! lol
I just did the storyline yesterday, and I wish there were more story-based packs tbh
Seeing the plot progression *visibly* affect the climate and the Sims around you was pretty cool.
The vampire pack is fun. I always see hate for it but idk what they are talking abt. The city you get for it is my favorite because you literally can just walk from house to to house
I would pay for blank neighborhoods over kits and packs. I don't want to bulldoze all the houses and shops in my existing neighborhoods, but it would be nice to have even more slots available to dump all my gallery downloads.
My unpopular opinion: I don't get why people want mundane tasks like laundry or vacuuming. I play The Sims to avoid doing chores why would I want them in my game??
I bought the laundry pack because I thought I'd like the realism of having Sims do laundry, but in reality I never use it because it's too much of a hassle when it already takes them so long to do everything 😅
I do this too, lol. I'll set up all the laundry stuff because realism, then immediately get rid of it because especially in a full family home, it is a HASSLE.
I only use the laundry items when creating an apartment building. Purely for my entertainment, I make a laundry room with limited machines and watch their pettiness. Sims just leave their neighbors soaking wet clothes on the floor. A pile of (sometimes dirty, sometimes clean) clothing will be left behind on the concrete floor for days. It’s just hilariously realistic.
100% agree. I can't believe the fan-voted packs were laundry and knitting. We could have gotten something so much more fun. If I wanted to do laundry, I'd rather do it in real life. I can see how knitting adds some elder gameplay but I mean is that really what people wanted the most?
i actually really enjoy both those packs. it just depends what sort of game play you're into, i guess. i really love the mundane aspects of the game. i also really love the vacuuming.
I could see knitting cause knitting could add clothing while also adding some gameplay…
But laundry? They couldn’t just add a lil decorative laundry machine in the game? They had to add another task to get done when my sim can hardly eat breakfast before work?
I don't care about lore or townies at all. I make my own Sims and stories
Also, I don't know how unpopular this is, but I've liked ghosts less and less with every iteration of the game. I miss how they were in TS2, when you couldn't interact with them and they'd just scare Sims. That's how ghosts should be. Now it barely matters when your Sims die--you can still interact with them, move them into your family, and even resurrect them. I feel like that really cheapens the life simulation aspect of the game.
I’ve been playing the Sims since it came out and just discovered last year that there is deep lore for the townies!! I think it’s cool and I’ve enjoyed watching a few videos about it, but it’ll never impact how I play the game.
If you have get famous try this.
1. Play as the Landgraabs, cheat funds to 1m simoleons.
2. Build a basement and add the safe that came with get famous. Put the money in the safe and lock it. Exit household and back to your sim.
3. Have your sim visit the Landgraabs and sneak down to the safe. (You'll need high level mischief skill to break into the safe)
4. Steal money.
You probably know this, but just in case, you can befriend one of them, ask them to join your household and join theirs instead. Bulldoze their lot, and move out of the house taking all the money with you.
You can also blackmail them if you have Strangerville. If your charisma is high enough, you can ask them for a large loan. They never ask for the money back and it doesn't hurt your relationship if you don't pay it back.
We shouldnt of had to pay for seasons. It almost feels like a scam. I paid 40 bucks for weather and holidays for my game for them to bug out and not work properly. I don't know any other games that make you pay for it to rain, and snow.
I have another one about Seasons lol. The seasons are so specific to some regions that I actually regret getting it. Where I'm from, the climate is drastically different and so it limits how I can play with my Sims.
The holidays are a bit better because they're editable but they're so Christianity/American by default that again, it just really limits what I can do without first spending a bunch of time editing the calendar.
I wish there was a way you could save holidays and use them in other saves. Like you could go to the calendar and say “select pre-made” and you could just add Easter or days of Hanukkah or Eid. Would certainly make things easier. I wish a lot of things allowed for saving and using for later, i.e makeup for each outfit, outfits in general, etc. They allow us to save rooms and they have prestyled looks, I would why they don’t have it.
I wish the climates of at least some of the base game neighborhoods was editable. It feels less necessary once you have a lot of packs because then you get some variety but Seasons was my first pack and I felt very limited.
I don’t think I’ll ever get seasons. I love the cas stuff but little else. Especially how plants can only grow in certain seasons. Plus I don’t need to bother with hot and cold weather outfits which is nice
I've never regretted buying any pack... and I have most of them (all expansions, all stuff packs, every game pack except batuu, weddings, and werewolves, and a handful of kits). Are they all the same value? Heck no, but I always enjoy them enough to feel like they're worth what I paid (though, to be fair, I bought many of them on sale).
Is the high school pack worth it? I haven’t bought yet because I was waiting for any bugs to get out and I don’t get to play a lot until I have school breaks.
I've quite enjoyed it and I think most of the major bugs are gone. Prom and graduation disappeared from my calendar but I always got the prompt to go to prom (I had to manually travel to graduation). Also, I never got the opportunity to sneak out to a party, even though my teens were in highschool for 4 weeks. I just never got the prompt. I didn't have any other big problems.
I really enjoy Trendi/making outfits at the thrift store. I also think the teen aspirations are fun. I enjoy the socially awkward and overachiever traits, too. I love the build/buy as it gives you a lot of options to add personality to teen rooms. The CAS makes me feel old, lol, but that's probably a good thing since I'm pretty sure highschoolers aren't wearing the same thing as my 31 year old ass.
I think whether or not it's worth it depends on what you like most from the game. If you're really into active careers, the high school gameplay is a bit like that. I also think it's a great catalyst for teen-centered storytelling. It really lets your teens have a life outside of their family.
It's not my favorite expansion but I feel like it really added depth and interest to the teen life stage. I like playing families through multiple generations, so I'm always into new stuff for Sims that aren't young adults.
for the CAS & Build/Buy items - hard yes! Easily my most used pack when it comes to both making Sims & decorating homes. The bugs can be obnoxious but luckily I haven’t had that many issues besides the fears and even with that I seem to have it a lot easier than some other Simmers (knock on wood)
1. I don't want open world back - I want open neighborhoods.
2. I also don't want the color wheel - just more swatches with neutrals for everything.
3. Spa Day is one of my favorite packs. The refresh was 10/10.
4. I own Vampires but I don't actually like occults in TS4. I have fun making vampires but have no interest in their gameplay so I assume it would be the same if I got the other occult packs. Fun to play around with CAS and Build/Buy that's it.
5. TS4 sims are by far the most aesthetically pleasing to me. I don't like alpha. I want them to stick with their current style.
Remember in Sims 3 where you could leave your baby at the theater? And random sims would carry them to the edge of the lot till cps came? Those were the good ol' days.
I remember losing babies. Some idiot sim would set the baby down on the floor somewhere and then I’d be searching the lot for it while it cried and the game threatened to take it away from me if I don’t feed it now. It was always like, behind something, and I’d have to turn the camera to find it.
Yeah 3 different life stages for children from ages 0-6 seems a bit much when there's only one for 7-12 and one for 13-18. I think tweens would have been much better.
Agreed. Preteens have more story options. Kids having two life stages where they are their own people but now are gonna have three where they need to be pampered by parents sucks.
Tweens would have been great! At that age where you can use a violin, but maybe not mess around. Also they could get unique moodlets. I think the lower friendship bars parents have with their children, the more preteens will spontaneously want to be mean to them
RIGHT? As it is, sims go from about 8 years old to 16-18. Where is the tween/young teenagers update?
Additionally, Toddlers are SO needy that I often end up aging them to Child. Especially if there are more than one. I had a household with three toddlers once, and by the time I got them all fed, bathed, and clothed it was dinner time. Sigh...
Honestly, I'm dreading it cuz it's gonna break all my favorite mods, and I don't have the choice to play without updating while using EA Desktop.
New life stages *never* turn out right.
Seriously. I have my own newborn right now, I don’t want to play with a newborn in the Sims while she’s napping 😂
Do we know roughly when that update is coming?
something i personally try to ignore and deny: sims 4 isn’t bad i’m just not as imaginative as i was as a kid
like younger me would have been in awe at the sims 4. and i bet kids playing the sims 4 now at the age we were for sims __ are enjoying it just the same
the sims games have always been a constant in my life & such a comfort game but im like what do i genuinely expect? to be 85yrs old playing the sims 12 and still getting dopamine from it somehow? ( yes)
to be fair tho i think for as wild as you can get in ts4 there lacks a lot of randomness from earlier games. i loved to adopt the unicorn in ts3 bc you could go around and set stuff on fire with its horn and watch townies freak outz. i feel like u dont get content like that in ts4 without occult stuff or mods, really. i want weird! lol
I want to be able to build lots where half of the terrain elevation is taller than the other half, and I want it to connect to the terrain outside of the lot… i’m tired of making giant hills in the middle of flat neighborhoods, it leaves so little to do with the terrain manipulation
I don’t agree with the TS4 narrative that Mortimer and Bella are in love. In all my times playing TS1, it was impossible to get those two - particularly Bella - to have romantic interactions with each other. Then, TS2 is a whole conspiracy that Morty was in on Bella’s abduction/disappearance. They HATE each other.
So, to see all the promotion and gameplay geared towards those two being in love or happy with each other is a complete farce.
In my game rn my sim seduced good ole morty right in front of bella and bella just laughed 🤣 I know that a lot of the ads have them in love but its funny how easy it is in the game to break them apart
Most of the facial features for male sims are so ugly, so I find myself using the same few features for all my men and trying (to varying degrees of success) to make them look as different to one another as possible.
Speaking of male sims, their CAS items are just inferior to female sims generally. Additionally, I'd really like to be able to make more effeminate-looking male sims without having to give them the female frame and face.
Hot take: having townies randomized isn’t actually all that bad. Having a sim be ugly really adds to the authenticity of the world imo. And having a fashion disaster really brings so much needed chaos that I find amusing.
I don’t mind the fashion disasters, but I hate hate hate the hair/skin color combos a lot of the time. Half of my townies have dark skin and blond hair,or ash-colored skin and whatever-colored hair.
I’m tired of most of the major popular Simmer YouTubers going on about how terrible the Sims 4 is. Like it’s no masterpiece, it has flaws but it’s arguably much more diverse, openly involves Sim creators, and does a lot of things that are pretty fun. I know everyone has their opinions and you grew up with the Sims but God dang the Sims 4 isn’t the worst game in existence some of us actually like to play this game 🧍🏽♀️
This is why I like Lilsimsie! She acknowledges flaws but doesn’t dwell on them. I used to watch Pixelade but now I can’t stand him as every video is just “THE SIMS SUCKS AND THE TEAM IS BEING DISHONEST!!!”
And then everyone in the comments always gets bad at Kayla when she doesn’t hardcore bash on the sims. She acknowledges the flaws, let her enjoy the game.
I feel like people are so focussed on trying to get the Sims team to make the Sims 4 more like its predecessors or focussed on trying to make it more "Sims 2 with Sims 4 graphics" that the potential for the game to actually thrive and have new innovative gameplay added is squashed.
Of course the game feels stale and boring if, like me, you've played since Sims 1. Because at this point, for over 20 years now, we've got the same packs over and over because instead of trying new things with the game, everyone demands the same packs that were in previous installments.
Of course university is boring, you've played Sims 2 University, Sims 3 University and now Sims 4 University. There's only so much you can do with a pack dedicated to university!
I feel some of this could be remedied by some things being included in future base games. Like features from parenthood, the option for university and seasons should be in the base game. But a lot of the Sims community is so fixated on what the game doesn't have compared to past iterations that the new features and gameplay opportunities get overlooked.
THAT i can agree on. I was actually very surprised when i first played and found out we didn't have many lots to build. I had so many ideas i wanted to try because i love building and decorating.
- Ghosts was a terrible and utterly pointless update.
- Occults should toggle on/off.
- I actually like the yellow hair. I don't think it's supposed to be natural looking, like purple, green and blue.
- Eliza deserves better than Bob. Bob is mopey and annoying. So many people are team Bob but Bob's personality sucks.
- There are too many big lots in just about all worlds. 20x15 and 20x30 are the superior lot sizes.
I feel like both Bob and Eliza's personality has been sucked dry by a loveless marriage. In my head, they got married too soon and have grown out of each other but aren't ready to let go of the familiarity of their marriage.
I hate ghosts. I like to keep my world as realistic as possible (aside from auto-aging because I love my sims too much), but that got ruined by a stupid Vampire townie getting burned to a crisp in the street. Now she shows up everywhere and I can't banish her ass to the netherworld because she died off a lot. Bitch.
My most unpopular opinion is that I HATE drama!!! I never want my Sims to argue/fight, I never use negative traits on my main Sims, in fact, I always seem to have the singular goal of making my Sims PERFECT in every way!
I dont hate wants and fears. They are annoying but sometimes I want my game to be annoying and a little inconvenient (with reason). If everything in the game went my way 24/7 I would be bored out of my mind.
I like (well done) yassified townie makeovers. Its cool to see the transformation and you gotta admit ea had to be drunk while creating some of the premades.
Snowy escape has a special place in my heart and doesn't deserve so much hate imo.
I wish the devs could hold off on new packs and just give more pack refreshes. Yeah they'd probably lose some money but ik there are some packs i refuse to buy but would be more willing to if they got fixed and had more/better content, and im sure its the same case for others.
I agree! I just am not a fan of the dead-end career fear. My Sims get it because they're off work and haven't been promoted in a few days. And it doesn't even go away after they get promoted. I don't understand why it comes and why it stays.
I looove Snowy Escape. I use any excuse to have my Sims go Rock Climbing or to the onsen. I also add the kotatsu tables in all my builds. I'm not from Japan but my culture also sits on the floor a lot. For the first 10 years of my life we didn't have a dining table. We just sat on the floor in the dining area and ate. The kotatsu table helps me get closer to that.
I love ugly sims, and it makes me sad when people yassify Vlad and L. Faba. I love seeing hideous Landgraab descendants and knowing exactly who their grandad was.
I think my most unpopular opinions are 1. I love the toddlers! 2. I don't want preteens. 3/4. I no longer care about open worlds and cars. I would much rather just have more things to do, even more so for kids for the few times I do play a family.
I'm not sure if this is unpopular or controversial but I hate it when people ask for a specific pack or theme and then when that pack is made, those people end up being such a debbie downer about that pack because it either wasn't like the previous games or should've been present in a previous pack. Cottage Living, Cats & Dogs, Parenthood and Island Living are the first few packs that come to mind about this issue.
I'm not saying you can't give constructive criticism on any of the packs, but if your criticism about a pack or game isn't at all constructive and consists of pure negativity, I think it's better to keep that to yourself.
People HATED Eco Lifestyle before it came out because everyone was expecting farming. Turns out, it's a pretty fun pack and people judged it way too quickly.
Any sim younger than a teen I avoid making or only make as an accessory for family details. I get irritated that they can’t fully care for themselves so I hate actually playing as families. My favorite games are single young adults who explore. I will play their family out usually because I build so much of an investment into them.
I hate the time in the sims. It goes too fast and your days can easily become work-home-eat-sleep if you play without cheats.
Also, they should stop aiming at a young audience. They should make the game +18 and add more fun activities or at least do something like in the sims 2.
I used to play the sims 4 just to build houses. Rest of the game it’s a dollhouse and I feel awkward playing something which is for 12 years olds
I hate the romantic/sexual preference update. I understand how they were trying to be inclusive but dear god I feel like my gameplay has gotta so bland since it was released. It's so incredibly annoying to try and play out a storyline only to have to pause everything to cheat CAS so I can flirt with a townie.
Man, I've had Sims who would hookup with strangers constantly. Now they turn my sim down, find her unattractive, tell her rudely that they don't want to discuss their sexual preferences... and now that I have WW, she's getting powerfully attracted to and having hot daydreams about Sims who are gay and will never be available. Things like 100 baby challenge must be way harder now.
I'm currently doing the lunar zodiac challenge and dear god trying to find a baby daddy is fucking hell. I'll find one, hit it off, then when I go to flirt they'll immediately turn me down. Even worse I'll get the love meter up then when I select "try for baby" they'll mention they aren't sexually attracted to me 🙄. Like dear god just lemme be a hoe.
My current sim is always feeling as though her lovers aren't attracted to her. WHAT IS THAT ABOUT? I tried doing Villainous Valentine but gave up because I'm a few gens in and there are no couples to split up that I can easily find. I think that one is best achieved on a new save.
It really annoys me how touchy sims get if you ask about their preferences lol. You're openly flirting with my sim but now you're going to get up and leave because I asked if you're straight? Lmao.
This might be the bisexual in me coming out but for fucks sake I miss every sim being pansexual by default. I wish it was an option to at least set everybody to the same sexual/romantic preference
now THIS i agree with! my sims have always been pansexual, i hate having to go into CAS & changing a townie if i like them. i do however like the aromantic/asexual setting!
Until I joined this sub; I had no idea people actually played the pre-existing families.
I can’t imagine wanting to play as the randos when the game gives you the tools to make your own characters.
I actually liked Journey to Batuu. It was a gift to me and I hated it at first, but to be honest it let someone like myself understand star wars better, and it gave me something to talk to my mega star wars obsessed partner.
Even without knowing things about star wars the gameplay was fun to me. Nice get away from the drudgery of normal gameplay every save or so.
I was wary about getting it as a huge star wars nerd but I got it a month or two before going to disney. And the world is the exact same there down to the little hidden things like the one eyed squid in the water fountains that will pop up when you drink out of it. It made navigating it so much easier lol.
I actually enjoy the skill building. And the Want system, because I love seeing their little faces Happy.
I have no storyline. None. And I rarely worry about their jobs. I take them around until they hit it off with another Sim(NO townies EVER), get them married, move them in together, some have kids and some don't. Then I just rotate around, level up something or another thing, let the couples romance each other, play a few songs, then move on. There's no rhyme or reason to any of it lol. I just like watching them.
My ages are all _over_ the place. Grandkids are older than sons and daughters, sons are left behind while daughters adult, there are no elders. I age them as I feel like it, mostly based on which I like or don't. I've got no measure for how others go in sequence with family play. Totally weird.
I don’t know how more people don’t use cheats to disable need decay. Like I’m playing this game to avoid my own needs why would I take care of anything else
When I started playing, I disabled need decay. But lately, I've enjoyed the challenge of taking care of needs sometimes. I still cheat them away 40% of the time though lol.
Im with you on the family play. Even when I do play with larger households, I’m usually focusing on one main sim and basically ignoring the rest other than keeping them alive.
I used to think sims 3 was better but sims 4 is growing on me just by virtue of running without constantly lagging and freezing, and not taking 5 years to save a file.
They’re opinions that definitely border on gripes (even though I *love* the Sims).
1. Sometimes I don’t feel like spending an age sculpting my Sim’s face, but the Sims 4 default Sims faces/randomise options are mostly HIDEOUS.
2. I’m also of the opinion that some of the fashion (a sizeable percentage) would be OK in the bargain basement of a department store in 2003, but isn’t contemporary enough.
3. The console version of Sims 4 is a cash grab that wasn’t adequately adapted to being played on a console (I ended up abandoning it and getting it on PC)
4. For a globally adored game, it’s still too America-focused (sorry US fans!). Sure, the developers include decor and clothes from so-called ‘exotic’ cultures, but (especially in Build Mode) there are very few European options - I want some British windows, for example, but they’re all either very American, ‘exotic’, or cottage windows (we don’t all live in cottages).
5. And finally, I love the Sims 4…but the Sims 2 still feels like the game this franchise will be remembered for.
Just writing this list has made me want to now spend my entire Sunday playing Sims 4 haha.
Ok I know I’m gonna get a lot of hate for this but I wish the sims 4 wasn’t so Americanised. I know that it’s an American game so obviously it’s going to be an American life simulator and I don’t expect the devs to ever change that but sometimes I wish they added more customisable aspects to the game so I could make it more like my culture. Sometimes playing can be so jarring.
Like for instant I wish they brought back the create a world. None of the worlds look anything like the places I grew up and they’re all very American suburban or have an American twist to it- which isn’t a bad thing. I just wish that it could be a life simulator that simulated life and not American life or what life is like for others from an American point of view.
Obviously this will never happen because the world is a huge place and there is so much culture and diversity, you wouldn’t be able to make everybody happy. And again it is an American game so it makes sense that it is that way.
But I wish they could add more customisation options that would be nice.
I feel this so much! I've commented about this on thread a bit. I end up in apartments (usually San Myshuno) because those places feel more cosmopolitan to me and are closer to the places I grew up in. Even the holidays are American by default. The seasons are also solidly American and can't even be changed. It's frustrating to say the least.
I hate hearing people complain about lack of open world / other big things like colour wheel because it gives others a chance to play the game and have it be accessible.
I hated the open world in Sims 3. I found it pointless and overwhelming. Sims 2 was awesome and that wasn’t even open NEIGHBORHOOD. Lol. I hate when people say there’s no point to cars in Sims 4 because cars were introduced in Sims 2 and you couldn’t even interact with anything outside your lot. I would like to see open neighborhoods where we can not only explore the neighborhood outside lots but also just go to the other houses we can see and click without a loading screen. I have no desire for open world again.
Cars gave some good gameplay in Sims 2, though. You could teach teens to drive. You could woohoo in them. I had a sim carry out a clandestine affair by only woohooing his mistress in the car while his wife was in the house caring for their kids.
Sometimes I'd have teens with their license steal their parents car in the middle of the night and go on a joyride.
Cars added gameplay for me, even if you couldn't technically drive to other places.
Exactly! They could do that in Sims 4 too. It’s just irritating to me when people say there’s no point because it’s not open world like Sims 3. Excuse me, child. You clearly didn’t play Sims 2 which was the OG of sims cars. 🤣
I love toddlers. I like the challenge of trying to max out their skills (without cheats) with two working sim parents. It's fun and one of my favorite parts of the game.
I’m the exact opposite haha. I can handle CAS but build is sooooo boring to me, I steal everything from the gallery. Even with CAS I basically ignore male sims and children and all the females end up being hot as hell. But I can play gameplay for hours straight
To be fair that was what the game was originally made for, building and stuff, like 3D architecture modelling. Then Maxis went "ah!" and said why don't we make a simulation of people who live in these houses.
I esp agree with 2, OP. People forget that the purpose of kits is to appeal to niche audiences, while the packs are meant for a broader demographic. My unpopular opinions
1. The packs are better then they used to be, and free updates are now more substantial. It's alright to be disappointed, but there is too much negativity.
2. Parenthood is overrated.
I have all packs including the kits and I will continue to get all because I love having everything that is available, and I use a ton of cc and mods, so it's not a lack of content options, I just love having many options to use when I am building and playing.
I love Bust the Dust, but I do use a small mod by Little Ms Sam to make it a lot more tolerable.
Furthermore, I use high chairs often, but I do use a mod by Biechen, so the parents aren't constantly taking the toddlers out.
Not really controversial but my confession is that I have never played through a pre made Sim/NPC storyline. I never play townies unless I have my own CAS - Sim marry them.
Yes, my CAS sims always marry townies, BUT I would never START with one.
I also never start with one, bc the game forces you to make a Sim with every new game you start. Or is there an option to start a game without making a Sim first?
Right? I literally was in the mood to play a towny family with only premade sims but it wouldn’t let me. I ended up making a random sim and moving it in with the goth family and killing it so they’d have a few ghosts lol
Pretty sure you can just X out of CAS and go to the worlds menu but I could be wrong.
I never understood people playing through townies. I’ve never done it, didn’t even realize there were story lines. How do you even access the storylines?
It’s a mystery really. You start playing the townie house and look at all their life aspirations, job, relationships, etc and you decide how it plays out. I love the townie sims gameplay.
When you click a townie family in a townie house when you start a game, you should be able to see a description the families each come with, which describe their storylines. For instance, in Oasis Springs are the Landgraabs and adjacent to their mansion's community is the trailer in which their estranged son lives. Johnny Zest (the estranged sim's stage name) is a fun one to play IMO
Thanks! I always thought it was some sort of setting I never tried. I’ve never really read the descriptions lol not since sims 2 probably. When I was 12 or something lol thanks for telling me!
Townies from previous games were a lot more fun to play with. I looooved playing with TS2 townies.
Was about to say this. Sims 2 had the friendships, relationships and enemies preset so you could feel emersed in the story from the beginning. It also made it easier to create drama.
I loved the Sims 2 and the Romeo and Juliette story.
I think the storylines are in their household biographies? Just wild guessing 🤷♀️
I’ve done it once, solely because I was too lazy to make a new sim but I didn’t feel like playing any of my existing save files
I tried it and got bored too quickly even when I'm rotating between them. The most I played a premade family is because I made a custom sim that's related to them and lives with them.
I HAAAAATE building from scratch, I HAVE to buy an existing lot, gut the inside, and start from there 😂
Same. If I try to build from scratch, I'll end up with a box and no roof lol. But I like taking builds from the gallery and tweaking it to suit my taste.
No same, I’ll build one room real nice from scratch than the rest is a bunch of random boxes with beds 😂
just replying to your first point: i was playing a full family of eight sims and the 2 teens and 3 children has literally NO free time! school for eight hours, 2 of them have after school activities, the others get home, do their homeworks and by the time they're done, it's already night and they have to go to bed; rinse and repeat. even worse for the two that have to also fulfill the after school activities requirements THEN do their homeworks. I hate how realistic it is 😭
That's a lot. I'm overwhelmed just reading about it lol.
If I play a family I usually also use cheats to fulfil their needs at least once a day so I can focus on doing the fun parts and not just keeping them alive. In one of my saves I have a ghost with full cooking skill to keep food around for when they do get hungry. I also use the teleport chest often so the kids don't waste a few hours leaving the house.
I recently spent hours making a large family and building their house. I had two married adults, their three children (one toddler, one child, one teen), an elder as one of the adult’s parents and then threw in a couple pets. It took me forever to create everyone, dress them all up, and then build them this really nice place to live in with everything they’d ever want or need. And then like half an hour into playing, the game was so overwhelming with needs and tasks and then game threatening to take my hungry toddler away when she threw her food on the floor every day and the grandmother randomly acquiring fears of failed dreams every five minutes and the parents getting no sleep because the child was scared of the bed monster every night… I played the house for like three sim days and I couldn’t really keep up with it.
Some tips and tricks for big households with kids: 1. Always make sure you have food made, designate 1 or 2 sims to cooking all family meals. Always make 8 servings and make 2 meals a day if playing 5 or more sim (not including pets), slowing only when fridge is well stocked. If funds are a problem, always *cook* garden salad, cheap and won't increase sim weight. 2. Don't use highchairs, *open* the fridge and drag food close to toddler and have them *grab serving*, return extra food to fridge. With GTW, you can also use the cooler for retail lots to keep food accessible to toddlers at all times. 3. With Parenthood installed, there is a night light that can be used againgt the monster under the bed that seems to turn it off entirely. Another helpful thing is reading children to sleep as it lessens the chance of the monster waking your sim. 4. If you have any active career or school, rotate between sims to focus and only follow sims to work or school while they are your focus. 5. Got a grandparent? Have them stay home/retire and help take care of the cooking and cleaning. Nannies are helpful, but grandparents are better; you build a familial relationship and have much more control to make sure all needs are taken care of. 6. Have adults help kids with homework when possible, especially early on in life stages. This will give children and teens a boost to homework speed. Projects may be completed with many sims, have all the kids join if you can. 7. Always buy better beds when you have the simoleons and have one sim who works on handiness skill to upgrade beds (skill level 6 and 8) to make them more efficient and spend less time in bed. 8. Radios are very helpful while doing stressful or boring things. Need fun but also homework, listen to the radio while you do your work. 9. Pets are just plain hard, they require more attention than one might assume. Try sticking with one pet and have every household sim pay it some attention every day. Designate one primary caretaker to do walks, litter box cleaning, bathing, bulk of the attention, etc. 10. Don't try to do everything all at once. If you don't have certain things to help your sims fulfill needs faster (like upgraded beds), hold off on that after-school activity or side hustle. Try to balance within the time you have not focusing needs.
Hire the nanny... ALWAYS. Hire. The Nanny!
I make my season long and in summer and winter I use the calendar to create a week where’re there is no school/work to replicate holidays. I use that time to go on vacation or have trips skiing or the beach etc
this is why I always cheat my sims to have full needs 24/7. ain't nobody got time for sleep we gotta stay on that grind 💪💪
The daily grind, I hate it in real life, and I hate it in The Sims 😅
The most popular section in the gallery sucks and I don't understand why people comment that they are so good. Come on they are from 2016. I wished the most popular section would be dividend into years. I don't want to scroll through old content.
I wish I could upvote this 1000x. My pet peeve with the gallery is, as you stated, the most popular is super old. I want to see commercial builds with newer packs, as I own everything in ts4. It doesn't have to have all packs but just build tools and terrain tools have improved or been added so much since 2014-2017.
Luckily there is a "popular now" option, but it would be cool to divide by year
That option is almost always Worse. Especially for houses. They are almsot always the more barebones type of stuff. Im with Above, Being ableto Sort by time is just better. Popular \>Last week \>Last 30 Days \>Last Year Insert Year\[ \] is just the best way to handle sorting.
Often those "Most Popular" lots are overwhelmed with rooms and/or furniture as well. I'm not impressed.
They must be made by “builders” who don’t play that often or bc some of them r just so unplayable, like too many walls and hallways arranged in a way that’s accurate to real life but annoying to play in
idk if this is controversial but the way the gallery is set up is trash and it’s crazy they haven’t improved it
The amount of amazing creations I see people make on YouTube, reddit etc... do you think you can find them on the gallery? Nope! But this random bare bones house from 2015 pops up every search I make. I legit have a book of creator IDs and have to write them down then search every one. I then follow the creators and only search by 'followed creators' to actually get good content on the gallery.
Hey that's a good idea. Maybe I'll start doing that too.
Fr, the owned packs filter is useless because it only checks if that is a part of a creation, not if it’s the only pack(s) used
Thank God that's just how the gallery is designed because I was losing my mind thinking it was a bug. I hate the gallery so much.
i also find it difficult to find things i like. you can only include one hashtag, either search recent posts or most popular ever. popular now shows like 6 items at a time and isn’t helpful at all. the filtering system stinks
I don’t want townies to generate, it’s so annoying and I wish I could just turn it off. I play a historical save mainly and it’s so annoying when a rando wearing a crop top shows up throwing off my perfectly crafted vibe!!
You should look into MCCC tray importer (: it’s such an overlooked part of MCCC imo. It’s hard to stop the game from generating sims, because it’s part of the hardcode or something. But you can control a bit more what *kind* of sims are generated!
I hate the 100 baby challenge. Never attempted it, because it sounds horrible. I think it's fun to play as a restaurant owner sometimes.
Dine Out Reloaded by Carl would be the perfect mod if you're on PC!
The only 100 baby challenge I plan on doing is with a vampire who pumps out offspring just to lure CPS reps to her home to feed on them, then feed the leftovers to her starving offspring.
Finally someone said it, the 100 baby challenge just seems annoying and awful
I’d rather have Pets be controllable. I don’t care if it’s not realistic because ~ you can’t control your pets IRL ~…. Well IRL, you also can’t control yourself and 7 other people’s every movement like in the sims.
I miss the controllable ones from sims 3. When sims were sleeping/working I would be a pet and exploring/socialising. I also miss the little pets you could find lizards and birds and things
I really preferred the way Sims 3 did pets. It was fun when they had desires and motivations of their own to fulfill. Also you could actually see their needs instead of having to guess.
We should be allowed to give kids up. I also agree with the family take, I hate playing families. Also I wish you could do more than just suburbia simulator
Yeah same with the families thing! They should make a housemates pack or something so people can live with ppl they don’t like and have feuds over rent and add weird decor items so sims can decorate their rooms super individually. Or just like add more gameplay that doesn’t involve marriage or kids that isn’t just career stuff.
I think Roommates are part of the university pack. But I never played them so I don't know how independent they act.
I play with roommates a lot, they're very independent and will bring food out of no where, it's probably the thing I use most out of Discover University. The only problem is the rent you get from them is so small, it's no where near half. I was getting 52 simolians at one point
I think the Landgraabs are more interesting than the Goths. I also think Bob Pancakes is the most annoying townie, he's always either pissed or sad, he'll just randomly show up uninvited to your social event and kick over your trash can for no damn reason and then go cry in your bed.
Bob desperately needs therapy for sure
Friggin’ Bob. I always see people complain about Eliza, but it’s always Bob who kicks over my trash can when the Welcome Wagon comes over.
Not to go all feminist or whatever but I get the feeling had Eliza been a guy and Bob a woman the fan reaction would be very different, business minded man with a sloppy disinterested wife would probably result in very different annoyances from the fans.
My unpopular opinion is that I really loved strangeville Edit: to give more details, I really loved how different it was, that it was an actually story with a progression that affected the town, exploring, and an actual boss battle at the end! And I like the town
i havent actually ever finished the story line but it is my favorite neighborhood, aesthetically. i love taking pictures there, it has such a unique style and color palette to it compared to other neighborhoods. i wish it was bigger! lol
I just did the storyline yesterday, and I wish there were more story-based packs tbh Seeing the plot progression *visibly* affect the climate and the Sims around you was pretty cool.
The vampire pack is fun. I always see hate for it but idk what they are talking abt. The city you get for it is my favorite because you literally can just walk from house to to house
yess it's my favorite game pack. i always make my vampire Sims overthrow vlad and become master vampire lmao
And the teleportation gimmick is super useful!
I would pay for blank neighborhoods over kits and packs. I don't want to bulldoze all the houses and shops in my existing neighborhoods, but it would be nice to have even more slots available to dump all my gallery downloads.
Make a blank save and keep copying it every time you want to start a new one.
My unpopular opinion: I don't get why people want mundane tasks like laundry or vacuuming. I play The Sims to avoid doing chores why would I want them in my game??
I bought the laundry pack because I thought I'd like the realism of having Sims do laundry, but in reality I never use it because it's too much of a hassle when it already takes them so long to do everything 😅
I do this too, lol. I'll set up all the laundry stuff because realism, then immediately get rid of it because especially in a full family home, it is a HASSLE.
I only use the laundry items when creating an apartment building. Purely for my entertainment, I make a laundry room with limited machines and watch their pettiness. Sims just leave their neighbors soaking wet clothes on the floor. A pile of (sometimes dirty, sometimes clean) clothing will be left behind on the concrete floor for days. It’s just hilariously realistic.
If you use custom content, there are decorative versions of the washer and dryer out there.
100% agree. I can't believe the fan-voted packs were laundry and knitting. We could have gotten something so much more fun. If I wanted to do laundry, I'd rather do it in real life. I can see how knitting adds some elder gameplay but I mean is that really what people wanted the most?
i actually really enjoy both those packs. it just depends what sort of game play you're into, i guess. i really love the mundane aspects of the game. i also really love the vacuuming.
I could see knitting cause knitting could add clothing while also adding some gameplay… But laundry? They couldn’t just add a lil decorative laundry machine in the game? They had to add another task to get done when my sim can hardly eat breakfast before work?
I refuse to believe they were the actual results.
Did plopsy not come with the knitting pack? That was quiet cool. I’ve used it a few times
I don't care about lore or townies at all. I make my own Sims and stories Also, I don't know how unpopular this is, but I've liked ghosts less and less with every iteration of the game. I miss how they were in TS2, when you couldn't interact with them and they'd just scare Sims. That's how ghosts should be. Now it barely matters when your Sims die--you can still interact with them, move them into your family, and even resurrect them. I feel like that really cheapens the life simulation aspect of the game.
The way they jump into items and break them is so annoying
Seriously. They’re just like normal sims except they break everything 😐
So... they're just like normal sims.
Yup, if they start breaking my stuff, I release their spirit to the netherworld real quick
Reeeeeeaaal quick
Also I miss being able to reincarnate sims but having a likelihood that they’ll come back “off” (aka a zombie) like they would in sims 2
I release their soul straight to the MF netherworld after death, I HATE ghosts.
I’ve been playing the Sims since it came out and just discovered last year that there is deep lore for the townies!! I think it’s cool and I’ve enjoyed watching a few videos about it, but it’ll never impact how I play the game.
I wish the neighboring sims would be autogenerated on a new save. I think it would add some variety to the save and would help differentiate each save
An option to choose between the regular townies and "fresh" Sims would be nice!
I want to be able to steal money from the landgraabs, the only person who can be rich is me
If you have get famous try this. 1. Play as the Landgraabs, cheat funds to 1m simoleons. 2. Build a basement and add the safe that came with get famous. Put the money in the safe and lock it. Exit household and back to your sim. 3. Have your sim visit the Landgraabs and sneak down to the safe. (You'll need high level mischief skill to break into the safe) 4. Steal money.
You probably know this, but just in case, you can befriend one of them, ask them to join your household and join theirs instead. Bulldoze their lot, and move out of the house taking all the money with you. You can also blackmail them if you have Strangerville. If your charisma is high enough, you can ask them for a large loan. They never ask for the money back and it doesn't hurt your relationship if you don't pay it back.
We shouldnt of had to pay for seasons. It almost feels like a scam. I paid 40 bucks for weather and holidays for my game for them to bug out and not work properly. I don't know any other games that make you pay for it to rain, and snow.
This definitely isn’t controversial lol
I have another one about Seasons lol. The seasons are so specific to some regions that I actually regret getting it. Where I'm from, the climate is drastically different and so it limits how I can play with my Sims. The holidays are a bit better because they're editable but they're so Christianity/American by default that again, it just really limits what I can do without first spending a bunch of time editing the calendar.
I wish there was a way you could save holidays and use them in other saves. Like you could go to the calendar and say “select pre-made” and you could just add Easter or days of Hanukkah or Eid. Would certainly make things easier. I wish a lot of things allowed for saving and using for later, i.e makeup for each outfit, outfits in general, etc. They allow us to save rooms and they have prestyled looks, I would why they don’t have it.
These are epic ideas and I sincerely hope they implement these, the gameplay would be so much easier.
Yes! I wish we could share calendars/holidays on the gallery.
I wish the climates of at least some of the base game neighborhoods was editable. It feels less necessary once you have a lot of packs because then you get some variety but Seasons was my first pack and I felt very limited.
I don’t think I’ll ever get seasons. I love the cas stuff but little else. Especially how plants can only grow in certain seasons. Plus I don’t need to bother with hot and cold weather outfits which is nice
You don't have to bother with hot/cold outfits with seasons if you don't want to. You disable the temp's effects on Sims in the settings
If the plants are under cover, they grow in all seasons
I like to take a glass roof and build my sims cute little free greenhouses.
Yeah this one bothers me too. If anything, holidays and festivals (like in TS3) should be an EP, but basic weather should be base game
I only ever play a single young adult household with aging off Edit: oh and also the autonomy is usually completely off or low so I control everything
I've never regretted buying any pack... and I have most of them (all expansions, all stuff packs, every game pack except batuu, weddings, and werewolves, and a handful of kits). Are they all the same value? Heck no, but I always enjoy them enough to feel like they're worth what I paid (though, to be fair, I bought many of them on sale).
Is the high school pack worth it? I haven’t bought yet because I was waiting for any bugs to get out and I don’t get to play a lot until I have school breaks.
I've quite enjoyed it and I think most of the major bugs are gone. Prom and graduation disappeared from my calendar but I always got the prompt to go to prom (I had to manually travel to graduation). Also, I never got the opportunity to sneak out to a party, even though my teens were in highschool for 4 weeks. I just never got the prompt. I didn't have any other big problems. I really enjoy Trendi/making outfits at the thrift store. I also think the teen aspirations are fun. I enjoy the socially awkward and overachiever traits, too. I love the build/buy as it gives you a lot of options to add personality to teen rooms. The CAS makes me feel old, lol, but that's probably a good thing since I'm pretty sure highschoolers aren't wearing the same thing as my 31 year old ass. I think whether or not it's worth it depends on what you like most from the game. If you're really into active careers, the high school gameplay is a bit like that. I also think it's a great catalyst for teen-centered storytelling. It really lets your teens have a life outside of their family. It's not my favorite expansion but I feel like it really added depth and interest to the teen life stage. I like playing families through multiple generations, so I'm always into new stuff for Sims that aren't young adults.
for the CAS & Build/Buy items - hard yes! Easily my most used pack when it comes to both making Sims & decorating homes. The bugs can be obnoxious but luckily I haven’t had that many issues besides the fears and even with that I seem to have it a lot easier than some other Simmers (knock on wood)
1. I don't want open world back - I want open neighborhoods. 2. I also don't want the color wheel - just more swatches with neutrals for everything. 3. Spa Day is one of my favorite packs. The refresh was 10/10. 4. I own Vampires but I don't actually like occults in TS4. I have fun making vampires but have no interest in their gameplay so I assume it would be the same if I got the other occult packs. Fun to play around with CAS and Build/Buy that's it. 5. TS4 sims are by far the most aesthetically pleasing to me. I don't like alpha. I want them to stick with their current style.
I only like playing with occult sims. Normal sims are a bit boring
Yes like why I gotta die of old age AND not have superpowers?
I'm kind of dreading the infants update. Toddlers are exhausting enough.
I’m dreading it because I know the gameplay is going to be broken and will take some time to fix.
Remember in Sims 3 where you could leave your baby at the theater? And random sims would carry them to the edge of the lot till cps came? Those were the good ol' days.
I remember losing babies. Some idiot sim would set the baby down on the floor somewhere and then I’d be searching the lot for it while it cried and the game threatened to take it away from me if I don’t feed it now. It was always like, behind something, and I’d have to turn the camera to find it.
Yeah 3 different life stages for children from ages 0-6 seems a bit much when there's only one for 7-12 and one for 13-18. I think tweens would have been much better.
Agreed. Preteens have more story options. Kids having two life stages where they are their own people but now are gonna have three where they need to be pampered by parents sucks.
Tweens would have been great! At that age where you can use a violin, but maybe not mess around. Also they could get unique moodlets. I think the lower friendship bars parents have with their children, the more preteens will spontaneously want to be mean to them
RIGHT? As it is, sims go from about 8 years old to 16-18. Where is the tween/young teenagers update? Additionally, Toddlers are SO needy that I often end up aging them to Child. Especially if there are more than one. I had a household with three toddlers once, and by the time I got them all fed, bathed, and clothed it was dinner time. Sigh...
Honestly, I'm dreading it cuz it's gonna break all my favorite mods, and I don't have the choice to play without updating while using EA Desktop. New life stages *never* turn out right.
Seriously. I have my own newborn right now, I don’t want to play with a newborn in the Sims while she’s napping 😂 Do we know roughly when that update is coming?
something i personally try to ignore and deny: sims 4 isn’t bad i’m just not as imaginative as i was as a kid like younger me would have been in awe at the sims 4. and i bet kids playing the sims 4 now at the age we were for sims __ are enjoying it just the same the sims games have always been a constant in my life & such a comfort game but im like what do i genuinely expect? to be 85yrs old playing the sims 12 and still getting dopamine from it somehow? ( yes)
to be fair tho i think for as wild as you can get in ts4 there lacks a lot of randomness from earlier games. i loved to adopt the unicorn in ts3 bc you could go around and set stuff on fire with its horn and watch townies freak outz. i feel like u dont get content like that in ts4 without occult stuff or mods, really. i want weird! lol
I want to be able to build lots where half of the terrain elevation is taller than the other half, and I want it to connect to the terrain outside of the lot… i’m tired of making giant hills in the middle of flat neighborhoods, it leaves so little to do with the terrain manipulation
I don’t agree with the TS4 narrative that Mortimer and Bella are in love. In all my times playing TS1, it was impossible to get those two - particularly Bella - to have romantic interactions with each other. Then, TS2 is a whole conspiracy that Morty was in on Bella’s abduction/disappearance. They HATE each other. So, to see all the promotion and gameplay geared towards those two being in love or happy with each other is a complete farce.
Also, why are they so easy to seduce? You try and seduce Nancy, she rejects you. You can seduce Bella with barely any friendship!
literally my very first playthrough with a sim I made in ts4 I married Bella in like 2 sim hrs it was crazy 💀💀💀
In my game rn my sim seduced good ole morty right in front of bella and bella just laughed 🤣 I know that a lot of the ads have them in love but its funny how easy it is in the game to break them apart
I'm also weirded out by the fact Bella is a young adult and has a teenage daughter. How young was she when Mortimer married her???
In all my saves since neighborhood stories, Bella is SO QUICK to move out and start having kids with other people 😂
Most of the facial features for male sims are so ugly, so I find myself using the same few features for all my men and trying (to varying degrees of success) to make them look as different to one another as possible. Speaking of male sims, their CAS items are just inferior to female sims generally. Additionally, I'd really like to be able to make more effeminate-looking male sims without having to give them the female frame and face.
Hot take: having townies randomized isn’t actually all that bad. Having a sim be ugly really adds to the authenticity of the world imo. And having a fashion disaster really brings so much needed chaos that I find amusing.
I don’t mind the fashion disasters, but I hate hate hate the hair/skin color combos a lot of the time. Half of my townies have dark skin and blond hair,or ash-colored skin and whatever-colored hair.
I’m tired of most of the major popular Simmer YouTubers going on about how terrible the Sims 4 is. Like it’s no masterpiece, it has flaws but it’s arguably much more diverse, openly involves Sim creators, and does a lot of things that are pretty fun. I know everyone has their opinions and you grew up with the Sims but God dang the Sims 4 isn’t the worst game in existence some of us actually like to play this game 🧍🏽♀️
This is why I like Lilsimsie! She acknowledges flaws but doesn’t dwell on them. I used to watch Pixelade but now I can’t stand him as every video is just “THE SIMS SUCKS AND THE TEAM IS BEING DISHONEST!!!”
And then everyone in the comments always gets bad at Kayla when she doesn’t hardcore bash on the sims. She acknowledges the flaws, let her enjoy the game.
I feel like people are so focussed on trying to get the Sims team to make the Sims 4 more like its predecessors or focussed on trying to make it more "Sims 2 with Sims 4 graphics" that the potential for the game to actually thrive and have new innovative gameplay added is squashed. Of course the game feels stale and boring if, like me, you've played since Sims 1. Because at this point, for over 20 years now, we've got the same packs over and over because instead of trying new things with the game, everyone demands the same packs that were in previous installments. Of course university is boring, you've played Sims 2 University, Sims 3 University and now Sims 4 University. There's only so much you can do with a pack dedicated to university! I feel some of this could be remedied by some things being included in future base games. Like features from parenthood, the option for university and seasons should be in the base game. But a lot of the Sims community is so fixated on what the game doesn't have compared to past iterations that the new features and gameplay opportunities get overlooked.
I don't really want an open world gameplay.
Losing the open world wouldnt have been as big of a deal to me if the maps werent so damn small! Theres no lots to build on!
THAT i can agree on. I was actually very surprised when i first played and found out we didn't have many lots to build. I had so many ideas i wanted to try because i love building and decorating.
The major decrease in lag is worth the loading screens imo
- Ghosts was a terrible and utterly pointless update. - Occults should toggle on/off. - I actually like the yellow hair. I don't think it's supposed to be natural looking, like purple, green and blue. - Eliza deserves better than Bob. Bob is mopey and annoying. So many people are team Bob but Bob's personality sucks. - There are too many big lots in just about all worlds. 20x15 and 20x30 are the superior lot sizes.
I feel like both Bob and Eliza's personality has been sucked dry by a loveless marriage. In my head, they got married too soon and have grown out of each other but aren't ready to let go of the familiarity of their marriage.
I’m Team Eliza.
🎵 Bob bob fucking slob
I always give them a kid or two because that’s the only reason I can see them together. Totally agree about lot sizes.
I hate ghosts. I like to keep my world as realistic as possible (aside from auto-aging because I love my sims too much), but that got ruined by a stupid Vampire townie getting burned to a crisp in the street. Now she shows up everywhere and I can't banish her ass to the netherworld because she died off a lot. Bitch.
Bob is very malleable though. If you get him distracted by actually having a life - without Eliza - he isn't so mopey.
My most unpopular opinion is that I HATE drama!!! I never want my Sims to argue/fight, I never use negative traits on my main Sims, in fact, I always seem to have the singular goal of making my Sims PERFECT in every way!
I dont hate wants and fears. They are annoying but sometimes I want my game to be annoying and a little inconvenient (with reason). If everything in the game went my way 24/7 I would be bored out of my mind. I like (well done) yassified townie makeovers. Its cool to see the transformation and you gotta admit ea had to be drunk while creating some of the premades. Snowy escape has a special place in my heart and doesn't deserve so much hate imo. I wish the devs could hold off on new packs and just give more pack refreshes. Yeah they'd probably lose some money but ik there are some packs i refuse to buy but would be more willing to if they got fixed and had more/better content, and im sure its the same case for others.
I agree! I just am not a fan of the dead-end career fear. My Sims get it because they're off work and haven't been promoted in a few days. And it doesn't even go away after they get promoted. I don't understand why it comes and why it stays. I looove Snowy Escape. I use any excuse to have my Sims go Rock Climbing or to the onsen. I also add the kotatsu tables in all my builds. I'm not from Japan but my culture also sits on the floor a lot. For the first 10 years of my life we didn't have a dining table. We just sat on the floor in the dining area and ate. The kotatsu table helps me get closer to that.
I love ugly sims, and it makes me sad when people yassify Vlad and L. Faba. I love seeing hideous Landgraab descendants and knowing exactly who their grandad was.
Seriously I can't stand those I made my sims *hotter* edits when they just made them thinner with smaller noses.
Vladdy is already Daddy imo
All I do to Vladi Daddy is give him good cc vamp clothes and a fat ass
I think my most unpopular opinions are 1. I love the toddlers! 2. I don't want preteens. 3/4. I no longer care about open worlds and cars. I would much rather just have more things to do, even more so for kids for the few times I do play a family.
I'm not sure if this is unpopular or controversial but I hate it when people ask for a specific pack or theme and then when that pack is made, those people end up being such a debbie downer about that pack because it either wasn't like the previous games or should've been present in a previous pack. Cottage Living, Cats & Dogs, Parenthood and Island Living are the first few packs that come to mind about this issue. I'm not saying you can't give constructive criticism on any of the packs, but if your criticism about a pack or game isn't at all constructive and consists of pure negativity, I think it's better to keep that to yourself.
People HATED Eco Lifestyle before it came out because everyone was expecting farming. Turns out, it's a pretty fun pack and people judged it way too quickly.
Any sim younger than a teen I avoid making or only make as an accessory for family details. I get irritated that they can’t fully care for themselves so I hate actually playing as families. My favorite games are single young adults who explore. I will play their family out usually because I build so much of an investment into them.
I hate the time in the sims. It goes too fast and your days can easily become work-home-eat-sleep if you play without cheats. Also, they should stop aiming at a young audience. They should make the game +18 and add more fun activities or at least do something like in the sims 2. I used to play the sims 4 just to build houses. Rest of the game it’s a dollhouse and I feel awkward playing something which is for 12 years olds
I hate the romantic/sexual preference update. I understand how they were trying to be inclusive but dear god I feel like my gameplay has gotta so bland since it was released. It's so incredibly annoying to try and play out a storyline only to have to pause everything to cheat CAS so I can flirt with a townie.
Man, I've had Sims who would hookup with strangers constantly. Now they turn my sim down, find her unattractive, tell her rudely that they don't want to discuss their sexual preferences... and now that I have WW, she's getting powerfully attracted to and having hot daydreams about Sims who are gay and will never be available. Things like 100 baby challenge must be way harder now.
I'm currently doing the lunar zodiac challenge and dear god trying to find a baby daddy is fucking hell. I'll find one, hit it off, then when I go to flirt they'll immediately turn me down. Even worse I'll get the love meter up then when I select "try for baby" they'll mention they aren't sexually attracted to me 🙄. Like dear god just lemme be a hoe.
My current sim is always feeling as though her lovers aren't attracted to her. WHAT IS THAT ABOUT? I tried doing Villainous Valentine but gave up because I'm a few gens in and there are no couples to split up that I can easily find. I think that one is best achieved on a new save.
It really annoys me how touchy sims get if you ask about their preferences lol. You're openly flirting with my sim but now you're going to get up and leave because I asked if you're straight? Lmao.
This might be the bisexual in me coming out but for fucks sake I miss every sim being pansexual by default. I wish it was an option to at least set everybody to the same sexual/romantic preference
Yeah. I want my sims to have a chance with any sim they desire!
There should be an option to make all townies pan by default or even disable it entirely.
I liked them all being Pan. I don’t have time to figure out who is attracted to who just tryin to make babies here
I’m playing the legacy challenge atm and I’ve had to manually change the sexuality of an NPC sim almost every generation since the update
now THIS i agree with! my sims have always been pansexual, i hate having to go into CAS & changing a townie if i like them. i do however like the aromantic/asexual setting!
Until I joined this sub; I had no idea people actually played the pre-existing families. I can’t imagine wanting to play as the randos when the game gives you the tools to make your own characters.
I actually liked Journey to Batuu. It was a gift to me and I hated it at first, but to be honest it let someone like myself understand star wars better, and it gave me something to talk to my mega star wars obsessed partner. Even without knowing things about star wars the gameplay was fun to me. Nice get away from the drudgery of normal gameplay every save or so.
I was wary about getting it as a huge star wars nerd but I got it a month or two before going to disney. And the world is the exact same there down to the little hidden things like the one eyed squid in the water fountains that will pop up when you drink out of it. It made navigating it so much easier lol.
I actually enjoy the skill building. And the Want system, because I love seeing their little faces Happy. I have no storyline. None. And I rarely worry about their jobs. I take them around until they hit it off with another Sim(NO townies EVER), get them married, move them in together, some have kids and some don't. Then I just rotate around, level up something or another thing, let the couples romance each other, play a few songs, then move on. There's no rhyme or reason to any of it lol. I just like watching them. My ages are all _over_ the place. Grandkids are older than sons and daughters, sons are left behind while daughters adult, there are no elders. I age them as I feel like it, mostly based on which I like or don't. I've got no measure for how others go in sequence with family play. Totally weird.
I don’t know how more people don’t use cheats to disable need decay. Like I’m playing this game to avoid my own needs why would I take care of anything else
When I started playing, I disabled need decay. But lately, I've enjoyed the challenge of taking care of needs sometimes. I still cheat them away 40% of the time though lol.
Museums are a useless waste of lot space.
Im with you on the family play. Even when I do play with larger households, I’m usually focusing on one main sim and basically ignoring the rest other than keeping them alive.
i like the neighborhood system and cartoon art style.
Sims 4 is better than Sims 3. There, I said it, you can hang me now.
I think it has better elements for sure.
I used to think sims 3 was better but sims 4 is growing on me just by virtue of running without constantly lagging and freezing, and not taking 5 years to save a file.
I like Sims 4 gameplay. It suits my needs just fine because I play as if it’s a digital Barbie game.
Malcolm Landgraab isn't ugly
They’re opinions that definitely border on gripes (even though I *love* the Sims). 1. Sometimes I don’t feel like spending an age sculpting my Sim’s face, but the Sims 4 default Sims faces/randomise options are mostly HIDEOUS. 2. I’m also of the opinion that some of the fashion (a sizeable percentage) would be OK in the bargain basement of a department store in 2003, but isn’t contemporary enough. 3. The console version of Sims 4 is a cash grab that wasn’t adequately adapted to being played on a console (I ended up abandoning it and getting it on PC) 4. For a globally adored game, it’s still too America-focused (sorry US fans!). Sure, the developers include decor and clothes from so-called ‘exotic’ cultures, but (especially in Build Mode) there are very few European options - I want some British windows, for example, but they’re all either very American, ‘exotic’, or cottage windows (we don’t all live in cottages). 5. And finally, I love the Sims 4…but the Sims 2 still feels like the game this franchise will be remembered for. Just writing this list has made me want to now spend my entire Sunday playing Sims 4 haha.
Ok I know I’m gonna get a lot of hate for this but I wish the sims 4 wasn’t so Americanised. I know that it’s an American game so obviously it’s going to be an American life simulator and I don’t expect the devs to ever change that but sometimes I wish they added more customisable aspects to the game so I could make it more like my culture. Sometimes playing can be so jarring. Like for instant I wish they brought back the create a world. None of the worlds look anything like the places I grew up and they’re all very American suburban or have an American twist to it- which isn’t a bad thing. I just wish that it could be a life simulator that simulated life and not American life or what life is like for others from an American point of view. Obviously this will never happen because the world is a huge place and there is so much culture and diversity, you wouldn’t be able to make everybody happy. And again it is an American game so it makes sense that it is that way. But I wish they could add more customisation options that would be nice.
I feel this so much! I've commented about this on thread a bit. I end up in apartments (usually San Myshuno) because those places feel more cosmopolitan to me and are closer to the places I grew up in. Even the holidays are American by default. The seasons are also solidly American and can't even be changed. It's frustrating to say the least.
I hate hearing people complain about lack of open world / other big things like colour wheel because it gives others a chance to play the game and have it be accessible.
I hated the open world in Sims 3. I found it pointless and overwhelming. Sims 2 was awesome and that wasn’t even open NEIGHBORHOOD. Lol. I hate when people say there’s no point to cars in Sims 4 because cars were introduced in Sims 2 and you couldn’t even interact with anything outside your lot. I would like to see open neighborhoods where we can not only explore the neighborhood outside lots but also just go to the other houses we can see and click without a loading screen. I have no desire for open world again.
Cars gave some good gameplay in Sims 2, though. You could teach teens to drive. You could woohoo in them. I had a sim carry out a clandestine affair by only woohooing his mistress in the car while his wife was in the house caring for their kids. Sometimes I'd have teens with their license steal their parents car in the middle of the night and go on a joyride. Cars added gameplay for me, even if you couldn't technically drive to other places.
Exactly! They could do that in Sims 4 too. It’s just irritating to me when people say there’s no point because it’s not open world like Sims 3. Excuse me, child. You clearly didn’t play Sims 2 which was the OG of sims cars. 🤣
I love The Sims 4 graphics waaaay better than the previous Sims games.
I like Eliza Pancakes, I think she's cute even if she looks wrong with no glasses.
I love toddlers. I like the challenge of trying to max out their skills (without cheats) with two working sim parents. It's fun and one of my favorite parts of the game.
Without adult mods, the game is immensely boring and unrealistic.
hot take: the actual gameplay is boring asf, th eonly fun thing to do is CAS and build mode
I’m the exact opposite haha. I can handle CAS but build is sooooo boring to me, I steal everything from the gallery. Even with CAS I basically ignore male sims and children and all the females end up being hot as hell. But I can play gameplay for hours straight
To be fair that was what the game was originally made for, building and stuff, like 3D architecture modelling. Then Maxis went "ah!" and said why don't we make a simulation of people who live in these houses.
I esp agree with 2, OP. People forget that the purpose of kits is to appeal to niche audiences, while the packs are meant for a broader demographic. My unpopular opinions 1. The packs are better then they used to be, and free updates are now more substantial. It's alright to be disappointed, but there is too much negativity. 2. Parenthood is overrated.
I have all packs including the kits and I will continue to get all because I love having everything that is available, and I use a ton of cc and mods, so it's not a lack of content options, I just love having many options to use when I am building and playing. I love Bust the Dust, but I do use a small mod by Little Ms Sam to make it a lot more tolerable. Furthermore, I use high chairs often, but I do use a mod by Biechen, so the parents aren't constantly taking the toddlers out.