Sims 4 Newbie... and it sucks

[Shelbee]

For context: long awaited Sims 4 Free to Play(er) here. Logged ~6 hours in the Sims 4 game now. Hardcore Sims 3 player. I try not to use mods or cheats, and try to just play naturally.

The point: Sims 4 kind of sucks. Maybe I just haven't "figured it out" yet, but here is some of my initial feedback. Open to opinions!

Topic 1: it's unnaturally difficult.
- I tried creating a single, female Sim, assuming I'd be able to meet a neighbor, get a relationship, and start a family. BIG NOPE. Making friends is so difficult (my Sim decides to randomly insult Sims all the time?), the friendship meter makes no sense (takes forever to improve and then one "insult" sets it back big time), and trying to meet someone for a relationship is really time consuming (with my Sim constantly needing to do something else). I finally gave up, went to CAS, made the perfect man, and had him move in.
- Why is it so hard to make money? My Sim goes to work happy, does the daily tasks, increases the skills, etc. Yet the only way I feel I am able to do stuff well (move, add to my home, etc.) is by using motherlode which really ruins the game for me.
- DO THE THING I ASKED YOU TO DO! Sims 4 constantly decides to override or straight up ignore asks. This is especially frustrating when I have toddlers who need to eat, and my Sim just REFUSES to give them food.

Topic 2: it tried to improve from Sims 3, but failed.
- The one thing missing from Sims 3 is the personalities. Sims 3 sims only really get emotional/upset after another close sim dies, and that's about it. Sims 4 tried to improve this, but my sims emotions are so random. "Very sad" for 2 hours about a missed dream, and then goes right back to Flirty. "Very angry" while at work, and then lands home and is fine.
- Relationships are definitely more complex in the game, but annoyingly so. I understand making it complex to have best friends or marriage, but initial friendships are even difficult!
- Why did they take away open world?
- I know this will be improved, but babies being objects is annoying.

Topic 3: It does have some positives.
- There's more options on how you want to play, and how your Sim lives their life.
- I can see that packs would make the game much more fun.
- I do love how customizable everything is (from the Sims themselves to their homes).

End of rant. Looking forward to hearing validation, opposition, or tips for new Sims 4 players!

[Xautos]

only thing i can suggest for you OP is to drop the pretense and focus on the moment of TS4 itself. When you start combining comparisons and presumptions before you really get into it, of course you'll say these things. But what happens if you dump all that off the side and try again without the baggage?

[Detective Dan]

i haven't played sims since the OG sims 1.

lets be honest the game really hasn't changed that much.

[Kotenox]

Publicado originalmente por KingOfFriedChicken:

No joke i set up a family and i have 2 parents to this child who have a kid together but i couldn't find out how to marry them in the family builder? idk so i had to work on their relationship and i built them for each other down to likes being the exact body type eye color and hair haha they still took forever and a day to love each other and i had to force that interaction they did not work it out themselves at all. The worst part is they have a kid together but wouldn't sleep in the same bed cuz "not together" and i still had to work for the "first kiss" lol
I just wanted to play my character starting as a kid with minimal interaction and let the parents be mostly autonomous but i ended up having to play all 3 just to build the relationship between mom and dad so they would both be able to sleep in their shared bed.

I do wonder if any DLC improves certain aspects of the game but im not really willing to fork out cash to find out, cuz i find jobs and school kinda dumb they just poof into jobs and school and i cant even play that aspect of their lives at all so my sim just makes friends at school but i dont know who or how or why *shrugs I also made a super social sim but they are the literal worst at making friends so i may have to edit that out honestly.

To marry two Sims in CAS call the console with ctrl+shift+c then type cas.fulleditmode this allows to set any close not set family relationship.

[Aturchomicz]

Publicado originalmente por Detective Dan:

i haven't played sims since the OG sims 1.
lets be honest the game really hasn't changed that much.

The most "Rose Tinted Glasses" take Ive read this year, its factually and realistically wrong

[KingOfFriedChicken]

My sim to had the fear of a dead end job and the worst part is i chose a job that aligned with their passions and likes as well xD i thought it was just part the game and me not doing stuff properly though.

[Norðtann]

Publicado originalmente por Mundfish:

Oi, is there a way to stop Sims from being feared of dead end jobs? I took them at most paid jobs I could get and now I'm getting bombarded how tense they are, tried using Fear-Be-Gone potions, which worked until it returned with a vengeance. While I'm not new to The Sims (played 2 with all expansion packs) it is first time I play 4 so, help me.

Publicado originalmente por KingOfFriedChicken:

My sim to had the fear of a dead end job and the worst part is i chose a job that aligned with their passions and likes as well xD i thought it was just part the game and me not doing stuff properly though.

Publicado originalmente por mzda_grl:

My sims constantly have this fear of a dead-end job too and it's annoying. Their jobs are fine and they need to chill lol

If u have fears then u need to conquer your fears.

u will get a thinking bubble as goal to confront the fear and u get explained how to do that.

For example for fear of dead end job u just need to click ur sim before they go to the job (within 6 hours before leaving) and choose the "regain passion" action. this will give a random moodlet, but the fear will be confronted and will be gone when coming back home, together with a strong moodlet that u have confronted ur fear. Its ♥♥♥ easy. Just read what u need to do and then do it. Only bad thing is that the goal bubble to confront the fear sometimes takes a day and rarely 2 to even appear.

[DaisyAimi]

with topic one I also suddenly struggle with that. But months before that didn't happen so I think it's a patch

[Nephritho]

topic 1: 1 The insult stuff it's not a bug, they added some new autonomous only interactions among them socials_Mean_AutonomousOnly_STC and socials_Romance_AutonomousOnly_STC, socials_Romance_AutonomousOnly_Teen_STC
that means they borked it up badly and filters won't do a thing.
It's best to use MCC which is a mod
1: 2 Money is easy, just don't work and focus on other things like painting which brings a lot of moolah.
1: 3 options > gameplay >disable autonomy for selected sim

[MadDawg2552]

Publicado originalmente por Shelbee:

Topic 2: it tried to improve from Sims 3, but failed.
- Why did they take away open world?

The open world in Sims 3 was a failed experiment. It caused more problems than it was worth, so they scrapped it.

These days Sims 3 is unplayable for me because the game freezes every few seconds while the Sims try to find a path to somewhere. It hangs until they find a path or until it times out, then it repeats again a few seconds later for the next Sim.

[°｡💗Nikki Minx💗｡°]

I don't think the game is hard or harder than prior Sims games. Its' background mood system just seem to be much deeper and complicated as it pertains to managing your sims. You can no longer simply let your sims be and they will get along and accomplish tasks with minimum supervision or oversight. You actually have to pay attention and manage your Sim's moods and relationships to make things go smoothly.

If you are the type of player that enjoys a deeper type of game play you may find TS4 more enjoyable this way. Those who want an easier, more passive, and less oversight type of game play may find the game a bit more onerous as it pertains to balancing their Sim's moods and overall relationship building.

That's not taking into account the massive amount of mods that many Simmers are tacking on to their game that can potentially make your sims moods even more spastic through no fault of TS4 developers. I too am finding relationship building a bit more difficult but I am enjoying the challenge. I guess the bottom line would depend on your individual game play preferences.

[<color=#CD3210>Lunatic]

For money. My vampire character is an author, i spent maybe 9 days writing books to get 10 grand per day in royalites. That''s almost permanent, well you get royalties for 20 days per book, once you master writing and get a perk for higher masterwork chances, your basically set for life as long as you write a book every 2 or 3 days.

My wizard character is master painter, one painting i made sold for nearly 13k. Most cost 100 to make, take about 4hrs of sim time to craft and then sell between 400-12,000.

You can make a lot of money from all sorts of hobbies rather then careers.

Vampires and Wizards can manipulate friendships better so insults dont carry a burden.

If you are a huge fan of sims 3, id strongly suggest you get the wizard magic exp pack, create a sim with artistic or writer perk/aspiration and learn to play with more enhanced mechanics and easier options for every aspect.

FYI, wizards can create a potion that fills all needs to max, and they can create 4 of that potion from a single apple, plant an apple tree, buy a couldron, make potion and never social, eat, sleep, poo or be sad every again.

[Captain Crispy Bacon]

Haven't read answers, but my answer is: it is very shallow. In Sims 3 you live a life, in Sims 4 you just live episodes. You sleeping, someone calls and invites you somewhere, you say yes, boom you there. What happen with waking up and stuff? Next one, you in the middle of conversation with a someone, preparing food or something. Someone calling and inviting you. You say yes and boom, you there again. What happened with those people you were talking to back at your home? What have happened to food you were preparing? This totally ruins the immersion. Even though right now I'm on a laptop which has less memory and less performant than my PC, I probably will delete Sims 4 and install Sims 3 instead, cause I just can't take this joke any much longer.