What is the point of Sims?

[Z0mBieP00Nani]

I decided to try this game out on a whim (as I've seen a number of screen shots of mods that have caught my eye over the years). So far my experience has been less than satisfactory, I created a sim, picked a "world" and was immediately greeted with a blank lot in a park to build a house on, I decided not to do anything with that because I don't have money yet. Then I noticed "careers" (yay, a way to make money) and some other stuff, but I also noticed that there doesn't seem to be a map or a way to go to work or school, then I noticed that my range of travel is very limited, I can see buildings in the distance but I can't go to those areas or enter the buildings (I can't really explore). Through interacting with one of the other sims in the game I manged to get invited to go to another map to do what exactly, I don't know. The sim I made is now constantly starving, constantly unhappy, constantly tired, and they stink because they can't bathe, because they don't have a house (I guess) and there doesn't appear to be any place to bathe. The social interaction doesn't make a lot of sense (other sims get stressed or pissed off out of the blue it seems, and I mean before I've really even done anything), the movement, camera angles, and controls are terrible (as far as I can tell), the time seems to fast forward randomly, the game world seems kind of dead and pointless... From the perspective of someone just jumping into the game, I have to say, the game makes no sense.

 

How did this franchise even make it past one release? Clearly I must be missing something.

[Kendo 2]

You're not missing anything on what the game is.  It's a convoluted life simulator and a grind-fest.  That said, you should have moved into a pre-built house on a lot somewhere instead of building one.  Anyway, the whole premise of the game is pointless IMO; and it's unplayable without mods to turn off or disable the annoying shit EA/Maxis adds as 'features'.  You probably wasted your money.

[Dovahchiief]

To answer some of your questions:

• You can travel by accessing your phone, which is an icon in the lower right. 
• You can also join a career by accessing your phone.
• When you created your Sim you should have been presented with a screen that lets you choose where you want to live.  To start with you should choose a pre-built house to live in.
• You should start with 20k in cash by default (which the house is bought with so don't by an expensive one if you want some left over.
• Depending on what your autonomy settings are set to, your Sim will do stuff for themselves, including talking to other sims.  This can be changed in the settings.
• You can see your needs in the lower left, and clicking on the icon to the left of the bar will make your Sim perform an action that fills that need.
• Time will sometimes fast forward when your sim is performing an action that takes a while to complete.  You can control this with some mods if you like.
• The point of the game is to live, you have to make your own fun, just like in real life.

[Voldearag]

It looks like you're not talking about Sims but just human life in general. What's the point of us living our lives? Well, it's simply all that we can do. Why live the Sims lives too? I don't know for sure, the game doesn't appeal to me enough to play, but the closest reasons to my mind might be to experience the feeling of having more control in life, being able to become more successful or stable, and reaching achievements that look so far away in our real lives as to be make believe.

Some people probably just like it too.

[Z0mBieP00Nani]

The "make your own fun" bit I get, I was expecting that part, it's the other stuff I'm having problems with. The game seems to be a cool concept, but poorly executed. I'm sure I'll get used to the controls and other features and maybe I'll like the game more at that point.

[WandererZero]

10 hours ago, Z0mBieP00Nani said:

Clearly I must be missing something.

Mods. 

 

You're missing mods. 

 

Seriously. There's some mods I doubt I could live without. Even putting Wicked Whims aside...there's a good career mod that is simply "Heir/Heiress" that let's you work one day a week for decent bank. I use this career when I want to play freeform. Stuff like MCCC let's you tune the game quite a bit. 

 

I almost never start a mod on an empty lot. I usually grab some house I like, and modify it to my liking. Just flip on freerealestate and have a ball. The game is definitely ala carte and what you make it. I know you also play on the Fallout side of things, and while there are some limits there....you can get pretty crazy on how many mods you want to run with Sims 4. I can tell you straight up: there are people with mod loads in the thousands. Just be aware of conflicts. They happen, but there are tools out there that help find/fix/manage them. 

 

 

[swordofthesun]

^ This person said it. Try some mods. But you should also ask yourself what you want out of the game. I was very into it for the first few weeks and then I realized how dull the gameplay is. Sometimes people just use it to make pretty screen-captures or a series of images for a story they want to tell, using custom poses and custom animations. I guess the gameplay might be better with mods (and maybe expansion packs), but I pretty much agree with you about the game itself being dead and pointless and repetitive. It is fun and useful for storytelling, image-creation purposes but otherwise boring and limited. 

 

And earning money in the game gets really pointless too. So, if you want to move things forward faster, there are cheats you can use to get 1000 or 50,000 all at once [look it up]. It's actually very simple.

[Z0mBieP00Nani]

2 hours ago, WandererZero said:

Mods. 

 

You're missing mods. 

 

Seriously. There's some mods I doubt I could live without. Even putting Wicked Whims aside...there's a good career mod that is simply "Heir/Heiress" that let's you work one day a week for decent bank. I use this career when I want to play freeform. Stuff like MCCC let's you tune the game quite a bit. 

 

I almost never start a mod on an empty lot. I usually grab some house I like, and modify it to my liking. Just flip on freerealestate and have a ball. The game is definitely ala carte and what you make it. I know you also play on the Fallout side of things, and while there are some limits there....you can get pretty crazy on how many mods you want to run with Sims 4. I can tell you straight up: there are people with mod loads in the thousands. Just be aware of conflicts. They happen, but there are tools out there that help find/fix/manage them. 

 

 

I didn't even know you could start with a free house.. it didn't seem to be an option. I guess I'll have to start a new game when I get home... with a few more mods.

[WandererZero]

6 minutes ago, Z0mBieP00Nani said:

I didn't even know you could start with a free house.. it didn't seem to be an option. I guess I'll have to start a new game when I get home... with a few more mods.

Sims4 cheats baby. 

 

A quick google search will reveal to you that there's all kinds of toggles built into the game. MCCC actually makes it easy to manage them, without bringing up the command line. But yeah. 

 

CTRL-SHIFT-C

 

Then: 

 

testingcheats true

 

Then: 

 

freerealestate on

 

There's plenty more. Google is your friend here, but I find that MCCC is a nice frontend for all of the games various flags. Yeah, you're gonna get some stalwarts who are like..."ZOMG, DATZ TEH CHEATING!" but the bottom line is this: if you like sandbox play, and I do....then tweaking the everloving hell out of the game to enjoy the content you paid for, how you want is your right. 

 

Go home, tap into the system, load in some mods, and have fun however you like to have fun!

 

Cheers! 

[WandererZero]

15 minutes ago, swordofthesun said:

I was very into it for the first few weeks and then I realized how dull the gameplay is.

It's not at all a very fun game from the standpoint that, if you play the game as-is...it becomes a bit of a grindy chore. It becomes work in many respects. If I want that, there's reality just outside my front door. 

 

It's much better if you sandbox with it, and play freeform...with the added bonus of laughing at all the folks who get butthurt the moment you mention ctrl-shift-C. But, honestly....modding and tweaking the vanilla game actually makes it playable for long periods, IMO. 

[sexicindi]

Sims 4 is actually the one part of the franchise everyone complains about. Even Sims 1 is better, I got the complete collection at a garage sale for 3 bucks, you'll probably get lucky at a flea market too. Sims of all versions, however does get grindy, but only if you're playing with one person. If you have multiple Sims, switch up who does skills and who gets to throw up on the ground, it can be quite entertaining. I really wish you hadn't gotten Sims 4 and instead gotten 2 or 3. They're much more entertaining. Sims 2 has much more deeper gameplay with random scenarios and cool backstories for every family you can mess with. Sims 3 isn't as deep, but it makes up for that with big stuff like the open world to explore, and goals sprinkled on top by way of opportunities. Sims 4 is missing core gameplay that Sims 2 and cool features Sims 3 had. At this point, the only thing I use Sims 4 to do is to make pretty Sims, which is the only thing Sims 4 has going for it, but even then modded Sims 2 can compete with that, I wish I could get that to run on my PC.

[WandererZero]

3 minutes ago, sexicindi said:

Sims 4 is actually the one part of the franchise everyone complains about.

I actually have no real complaints about 4, believe it or not....aside from the ridiculous business model with regard to how they sell DLC. But that's not the game itself. I think the Gallery is downright terrible in terms of finding what you're looking for, because EA have made it not functional for people in order to steer them to buying more stuff. But again, that's not the actual game itself. 

 

Sims 4 is actually, at least in my estimation....a pretty good culmination of the Sims IP, and...once you tune it up on the backend...a really fun sandbox environment. You can do a whole lot with it, especially in terms of imagination and creativity. Granted, if you want "deeper" or more constructed play, the other titles are there. But, to be honest...Sims 4 is not that bad once you get it tuned up. 

[2cool4u_1]

5 minutes ago, WandererZero said:

.... Sims 4 is not that bad once you get it tuned up. 

The vanilla game is boring, especially without the added content of various packs! Sure it's fine for an hour or two, but then it feels like there's nothing fun to do except for real life-type work. It's still fun to build houses or sims in CAS, but gameplay is lacking. Let's be honest, there's a reason why EA built the game to run with mods, and the game would be dead already without them.

 

On the other hand, as you've said, once you get it tuned up with mods to suit your preferences, the game can offer all kinds of fun experiences. Every pack that comes out (except the last 2) I've been saying "it was done better in Sims 3"; 'Cats & Dogs' vs 'Pets', 'Go To Work' vs "Ambitions', 'City Living' vs 'Late Night', 'Vampires' GP vs 'Supernatural' EP, and so on. When it comes to modded gameplay though, I'd rather have Sims 4.

[AttritionofContrition]

It made it beyond the first release because at the time the first game was mind blowingly different. Not only can I build a house from (for its time) the smallest detail but I can live in it too?! Having played sim city growing up this game just blew my balls completely off. 4 is just dull, plain and simple, it's made for tween-teenage girls whereas the first and second, to a degree, were made for everyone. It's just too safe and made to be as least offensive as possible.

If you didn't play the first 2 when they were new I hate to say it but you missed out and if you're outside their targeted demographic you probably won't ever really get into the series. Three was such an amazing concept but a technical disaster that can, at the very least, be mitigated somewhat by mods but 4 is flawed to its core and no amount of mods are able to add any amount of measurable depth. "Wide as an ocean, shallow as a puddle" so they say but even then I'd hardly call what we have now compared to 3 wide as an ocean.

So don't feel too bad about not liking it, I've been an avid sims player since 2000 and I only boot 4 up to watch a couple of sims bang then shut it off for a few months. In fact I'd say you're lucky to not have to watch EA continue to defile the husk of a company you loved and grew up with. That is unless you're a bioware fan.

[WandererZero]

9 minutes ago, AttritionofContrition said:

If you didn't play the first 2 when they were new I hate to say it but you missed out and if you're outside their targeted demographic you probably won't ever really get into the series. Three was such an amazing concept but a technical disaster that can, at the very least, be mitigated somewhat by mods but 4 is flawed to its core and no amount of mods are able to add any amount of measurable depth.

Interesting take. I played the original Sims. It was absolutely revolutionary for its time. Hands down. I did enjoy the original quite a bit. Never played 2 or 3, so I can't speak to that. 4 was a bit of a shock, having only played the original....As for your experience with 4, all I can say to that is: that hasn't been my experience at all. I've actually found it to be quite enjoyable, especially with mods....while I agree the vanilla experience and even the packs are a bit thin, I find that modding them has allowed me to tailor the game precisely to my liking....adding to the depth of that ocean, and at least getting to a lake in most cases, and not so much a puddle. 

 

That's not to say your experience is any less valid to you; I am also sure there are plenty of other folks who would agree. But, I also think plenty of people enjoy 4 for what it is, modded or not. While 4 didn't necessarily follow the same path as 2 or 3, games do need to change...and they do need to draw in new people lest they get stagnated and dry. 

 

 

[Z0mBieP00Nani]

After playing  it for a little over four hours yesterday I can understand what people mean when they say the game play is kind of dry. Does anyone know of a mod that makes the needs portion more balanced in that it drains more slowly? I don't mind that aspect that much, as long as I can keep everything in the green, the problem is one need tends to drain faster than the the other and then it becomes a juggling act which winds up taking up most of my time (my sim literally ends up stuck in the house all day, or for most of the day). I think MCCC allows some adjustment of those features, but I haven't figured out how to work that mod fully yet.

 

Something tells me that EA knew the game was kind of dry and they put the needs balancing mechanic in there as a distraction.

[Crazy Doll]

1 hour ago, Z0mBieP00Nani said:

 Does anyone know of a mod that makes the needs portion more balanced

You don't need mod for this, just use reward traits.

[Buddy16]

2 hours ago, Z0mBieP00Nani said:

After playing  it for a little over four hours yesterday I can understand what people mean when they say the game play is kind of dry. Does anyone know of a mod that makes the needs portion more balanced in that it drains more slowly? I don't mind that aspect that much, as long as I can keep everything in the green, the problem is one need tends to drain faster than the the other and then it becomes a juggling act which winds up taking up most of my time (my sim literally ends up stuck in the house all day, or for most of the day). I think MCCC allows some adjustment of those features, but I haven't figured out how to work that mod fully yet.

 

Something tells me that EA knew the game was kind of dry and they put the needs balancing mechanic in there as a distraction.

that's nothing new, tried to play The Sims 1? It's even more needs management and you actually don't have to keep all need in the green 

[Too_Funky1987]

Without Wickedwhims, Basemental, Nisa, and many other clothing/hair cc and realistic mods, the game itself is VERY boring. I tried it vanilla on ps4 and it sucks! it's a terrible game without mods. Vanilla sims 3 was way better.

[JughandleJones]

9 hours ago, Z0mBieP00Nani said:

Does anyone know of a mod that makes the needs portion more balanced in that it drains more slowly?

UI Cheats Extension http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=558548 doesn't balance the needs but it allows you to click on the bar and change its value to where you click.  It also allows you to remove buffs that you don't like by right clicking on it.  The need portion is most useful if you are away from home but have Sims at home or at work who are too stupid to take care of themselves.

[Cul]

There was also a thing that would make all your sims look like this, but the creator may be dead.

 

[Khyttyn]

On 5/16/2019 at 12:19 AM, Z0mBieP00Nani said:

I decided to try this game out on a whim (as I've seen a number of screen shots of mods that have caught my eye over the years). So far my experience has been less than satisfactory, I created a sim, picked a "world" and was immediately greeted with a blank lot in a park to build a house on, I decided not to do anything with that because I don't have money yet. Then I noticed "careers" (yay, a way to make money) and some other stuff, but I also noticed that there doesn't seem to be a map or a way to go to work or school, then I noticed that my range of travel is very limited, I can see buildings in the distance but I can't go to those areas or enter the buildings (I can't really explore). Through interacting with one of the other sims in the game I manged to get invited to go to another map to do what exactly, I don't know. The sim I made is now constantly starving, constantly unhappy, constantly tired, and they stink because they can't bathe, because they don't have a house (I guess) and there doesn't appear to be any place to bathe. The social interaction doesn't make a lot of sense (other sims get stressed or pissed off out of the blue it seems, and I mean before I've really even done anything), the movement, camera angles, and controls are terrible (as far as I can tell), the time seems to fast forward randomly, the game world seems kind of dead and pointless... From the perspective of someone just jumping into the game, I have to say, the game makes no sense.

 

How did this franchise even make it past one release? Clearly I must be missing something.

If you are starting with Sims 4 then I see why you aren't impressed at all by the franchise and feel a need for CC and mods lots of both. It's the lamest of the Sims franchise. The first Sims -Sims 3 was fantastic and I never felt a need to mod anything.  Sims 4 lacks a lot of the fun, drama and excitement. We had some sweet rides, We had a wide range of things to wear and looks to create. 

 

Here are a few links to make the game better if you are open to mods. Jughandle mentioned the UI Cheats Extension.

 

There is MC Command Center ...Choose version 6.20 and MC WooHoo 6.20

https://deaderpool-mccc.com/#/releases

 

Wicked whims allow for sex in the game. There are many people who create animations

 

Mod the Sims has many good mods, traits, careers and some good build and buy items.

http://modthesims.info/browse.php?gs=4

 

Sims ResourseCenter is better for CC (Clothes, accessories, hair, shoes, tattoos, skins, etc) they don't have mods, traits, careers, that other sites have. 

 

Sims 4 Studio this is best for updating your CC after a major update and merging.

http://sims4studio.com/thread/562/sims-studio-windows-wishes-open?page=1&scrollTo=4966

 

Tray Importer is fantastic it lets you keep builds and households you create or download out of your library

https://luniversims.com/files/file/73-sims-4-tray-importer/

 

Simdom if is a great overall site and will warn you if creators are using AdFly. Stay away from anything AdFly. AdFly fucks up your computer.  There are fantastic CC Creators like Slat Classy and Nitro Panic that make super sexy clothes that you can download on this site.

https://www.simsdom.com/lg/downloads

 

I am a fan of Colores Urbanos. They have free stuff every month on their Patron site.

https://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/browse/category/sims4/search/colores urbanos/

https://www.patreon.com/coloresurbanos

https://coloresurbanos.tumblr.com/

 

Jomsims does classy and sexy CC, custom furniture, makeup, accessories etc.

https://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/browse/category/sims4/search/jomsims/

https://www.jomsimscreations.fr/index-en.html#

 

Studio K Creation Another favourite CC Creator of mine. They do some anime style CC.

https://karzalee.wixsite.com/studiok

 

Marigold Some of their older stuff uses AdFly but their newer stuff doesn't

https://sims4marigold.blogspot.com/

 

For Shoes Madlen is the way to go. Yes others do shoes too but I think we all have a closet full of Madlen Shoes for our Sims

https://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/browse/category/sims4/search/madlen/

 

For hair, there are many good creators. I'll share a few 

 

Anto

https://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/browse/category/sims4-hair-hairstyles/search/anto/

 

Stealthic

https://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/browse/category/sims4-hair-hairstyles/search/stealthic/

 

Redhead Sims

https://www.simsdom.com/redheadsims

 

Wings

https://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/browse/category/sims4-hair-hairstyles/search/wings/

 

Ade_Darma

https://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/browse/category/sims4-hair-hairstyles/search/ade_darma/

 

Nightcrawler_Sims

https://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/details/category/sims4-hair-hairstyles-female/title/nightcrawler-julia/id/1441681/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[aifman7]

Have to admit that I'm pretty surprised at the general dislike toward The Sims 4 that folks have expressed here. This is my first real foray into the series, and although I just picked it up a month ago I've been playing it nearly every day for several hours at a time. Still having a lot of fun.

 

I do have a ton of mods and CC installed, but much of it is situational and not really active or being used very often. Initially I picked this game up intending to explore all of the adult content for it that's available here on LL, but lately I find myself playing the game fairly normally without really focusing on the adult stuff as much as I did initially. 

 

I'm a big fan of management games, and the fact that you can micro-manage nearly every facet of a sim's life really draws me in. I'm also probably a weird gamer compared to most, because I actually enjoy games that have a grind to them. I have a lot of free time outside of work and most of that time is spent playing games, so when I find a sandbox game that's both fun to play and has a rewarding grind, it's much more likely to draw me in. It's nice being able to lose track of time because you're enjoying a game so much. Perhaps that's the old MMO player in me shining through, I dunno. I'm currently in the process of getting one of my sims to max level in every skill in the game as well as maxing out every aspiration track, if that tells you anything about my dedication to the grind. (I'm a bit of a completionist if you couldn't tell, haha)

 

I do agree that this game isn't for everyone, but one of the things I like about it is the fact that you have so much freedom to shape the game world into what you want it to be. Don't like one of your sim's neighbors? You can get rid of them in a wide variety of ways. Like their house? You can take it if you want. Getting bored with the sim you've been playing for the last week? Make a new sim, or just take direct control of any other sim and live as them instead.

 

And if there's something you want to do that's not a part of the game? There's a mod for that. There are so many mods available for this game that it is truly a great sandbox experience. If you're bored with the vanilla game, I definitely recommend turning to google to check out some of the mods that are available. It's  a good idea to confirm that the mods you're interested in work with the current game version, though. There's a site for that.

 

Keep in mind that not every mod listed there is compatible with every other mod--you can definitely run into conflicts if two mods are altering the same information. It's also worth noting that the list there is not a complete database of every single mod for the game. It's a big list, but there's much more out there. Google will be your best friend here. Also, even if a mod isn't shown in that list and even if it's several years old and hasn't ever been updated, it's entirely possible that it will still work with the current version. Sometimes the best way to find out if a mod will work is to just install it and load up the game to test it out. One of the nice things about this game is that installing and removing mods is relatively painless and easy, especially if you have experience modding Bethesda games like Skyrim or Fallout.

 

Sorry that you aren't having much fun so far. Hopefully you can find a way to make the game more entertaining for yourself!

[rb888]

Get ready Sims 4 is free threw origin now next 5 days. lol Going be alot new people maybe come for Adult mods would see.

[rb888]

Ive Hardly been playing because my destiny 2 time lol