Curious about what Pinstar’s plans are for the Sims 4 Legacy Challenge? Check out his latest news video on his Youtube channel to find out more!
29
Aug
2014
Sims 4 Creator’s Camp
26
Aug
2014
The Sims 4 Creator’s Camp: Strategy & Tactics
For those of you with a ‘play to win’ approach to playing the Sims or for those of you looking to get a little jump start on your families and like to see your families doing well, I present to you a quick Strategy & Tactics article based on my experiences in Creator’s Camp. This is by no means a comprehensive guide. In fact, you’ll notice most of these are “Learn from my fail” style tips. While I am a veteran of the Sims franchise back to the original, I still had a lot to learn when I picked up the Sims 4.
21
Aug
2014
Legacy Challenge Rules Teaser: Succession Laws
Two children, but who will be the heir of the 2nd generation?
In a previous post, I made a poll asking the community to weigh in on how I should handle the question of ‘who becomes heir’. With a little bit of variation, the results have become crystal clear and pretty much maintained these ratios since day 2 of the poll.
With over a thousand responses, here is how the results were distributed.
14
Aug
2014
Sims 4 Creators Camp: Paintings, Decorations, and Mood Auras
Of the six motive bars present in the Sims 4 (hunger, bladder, energy, fun, hygiene, and social) environment is absent. This is nothing new, as the environment bar was absent in the Sims 3 as well. In the Sims 3, the environment bar was replaced with moodlets. If your Sim was in an area with lots of decorations, they’d get a positive moodlet, and if they were in a pig sty with lots of dirty objects, they’d get a negative moodlet. The Sims 4 incorporates environment-as-moodlets in a similar manner, but gives the whole system some major enhancements along the way.
12
Aug
2014
Traits: An In-Depth Look
The Sims 4 takes a combination approach when it comes to fleshing out your individual Sims. It takes (and expands) the aspiration system from the Sims 2 and takes the concept of traits from the Sims 3.
If you haven’t already, check out my video done regarding traits. This was pre-Creators Camp so some of the information is a little guess work, but it is still worthwhile if you want to see a complete list of traits, as well as the animations associated with each of them. (And a bit of Lady Cheshire animated near the end)
But that isn’t anything new, so let me dive in depth a bit deeper and give you a closer look at a few of the traits I had the chance to play with extensively.
11
Aug
2014
Sims 4 Creators Camp: The Emotional Legacy
In my previous two walkthroughs, my focus was on what was going on, but I didn’t really focus on emotions. In this post, I’ll recount the emotional journey that Lady Cheshire had on one evening early in the challenge, back when she was still living on her own, and on the lawn. The purpose is to give you some under-the-hood details about how emotions work and how they interact with moodlets.
How Emotions Work:
The various emotions your sim can fall under.
08
Aug
2014
Sims 4 Creators Camp: Creating a Legacy (Part Two)
Use the bathroom while confident and you’ll pee like a champion. Even the animation is different. This is far funnier than Sims 3 “Take Evil Shower” trait modifiers.
When we last left our intrepid Legacy Family, Lady Cheshire Masque had just found out she was pregnant. But let me back up for a moment. How did she become pregnant?
Well, if you haven’t had the birds and bees talk, you may want to ask a parent. (On a side note, there is a child-to-adult interaction called ‘Ask about WooHoo’)
07
Aug
2014
Sims 4 Creators Camp: Creating a Legacy
Sims 4 Creators camp is a full three day hands-on experience. There were about two dozen of us invited in total, simmers from across the spectrum. Some were machinima makers, some custom content creators, others builders and modders, and still others were Let’s Players and other Youtube figureheads. Everyone was given the same level of access to the game, but everyone approached their time with the game differently. After the break, I detail MY experience with the game from start to finish.
06
Aug
2014
Sims 4 Creators Camp: Writing and Books
Writing is back and in good form in The Sims 4. There is still a writing skill and one still needs a computer to work on their writing. There are also a number of improvements and additions to the writing system.
When you want to start writing, you go to a computer, same as it has been since the Sims 2. When you are unskilled the only two options are to practice writing or to start a Children’s book. As your Sim grows in writing skill, they begin to unlock new book types. The types I observed were: Children’s, Non-Fiction, Poetry, and Screenplay. My Sim did not get anywhere near to maxing her writing skill so that is NOT a comprehensive list, but that was all I observed in my play time. Different book types take different lengths of time to write. Children’s books and poetry books are fairly quick to write compared to Non-Fiction.
05
Aug
2014
Sims 4 Creator’s Camp – Whims
While at Sims 4 Creator’s Camp, I was able to experiment a bit with the whims of Sims. Below is what I discovered.
Whims are the new wants. Whims are things your Sim wants to do right now. Every Sim can have up to 3 whims at a time. Two of these whims are general whims and will arise from the general situation. They can be generated by situations, traits or one’s career. In fact, mousing over them will tell you exactly what caused them to appear. General whims will stick around until you either fulfill them or cancel them. There is no penalty to canceling them; a new one will take its place pretty quickly.
The third whim is tied directly to the Sim’s current emotion and has been given the nickname a ‘hot whim’. Unlike the two general whims, their hot whim will forcibly change every time a Sim’s dominant emotion changes. Depending on the circumstances, a Sim’s emotion might only last for a few hours. As a result, the aspiration points gained from fulfilling hot whims tend to be higher compared to the effort needed. They can also be chained. If you fulfill a hot whim, it is immediately replaced by another hot whim related to the emotion.