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.

Let’s start with the negative side of things. Just like in all versions of the game, objects get dirty; food on plates goes bad and puddles can form from accidents (both mechanical and biological). Having one or two of these messy objects in a room did not alter the mood of my sims, but once enough of them piled up, a +1 uncomfortable moodlet popped up for a dirty environment. Let the environment get more dirty and the moodlet grows in strength. While I did not test this directly, I would imagine slob Sims have a greater tolerance to (or immunity to) filth, while neat Sims would get bigger penalties than normal.

Just like in all versions of the game, objects get dirty; food on plates goes bad and puddles can form from accidents (both mechanical and biological).

An interesting note: You need a garbage can in your kitchen and it will get used much more regularly than in past games. When a Sim is told to clean up a plate with food left on it (spoiled or otherwise) before they take that plate to the sink, they walk over to the garbage can and scrape off all the food. Depending on how much food goes to waste, you will see the garbage can get full with relative frequency. You also don’t get a free outdoor garbage can and need to buy one to act as a final destination for trash. This is ultimately a good thing, though, as there are several styles to choose from, you can have more than one and they are fairly cheap.

On the positive side of the environment spectrum, you have PLENTY of decorative objects to choose from. There seems to be an increased emphasis on “Clutter” objects, little knickknacks and accessories that might not serve a literal function, but do add an environmental score. Lady Cheshire’s inspiration room sported a coffee maker that looked a bit out of place until I put a multi-coffee mug holder on a nearby desk. While the coffee mug holder was never directly interacted with, it gave the room much more character. There is even a category of objects in buy mode called ‘clutter’.

From a gameplay perspective, most objects will add their decorative value to a ‘well decorated’ positive moodlet. This moodlet gives you points towards the happy mood, which can be turned into other moods if a different positive moodlet is present. All the decorative objects from buy mode that have a decoration value will add to this generic happy moodlet. That doesn’t mean that other moods are left out, however.

Mood Auras

The hallmark effect of most of the career reward objects are that they can give off a ‘mood aura’ for a mood other than happy. This works very much like the ‘well decorated’ happy moodlet, except it is for a specific mood. Early in the writing career I was able to unlock a painting and a computer that both could give off the inspiried mood as an aura. Thus walking into a room with them would give a Sim an inspired moodlet and could potentially put them into an inspired mood, which is very useful for writers!

The other unique thing about auras is that they can be toggled on and off, and actually come toggled off by default when you place the item. Picture a house filled with dozens of these mood aura objects of many different moods, and all of the auras turned on. A Sim passing through the house would be assaulted with half a dozen different environmental moodlets and their dominant mood would likely change from room to room. The Devs have stated that they do NOT want a Sim’s dominant mood to constantly jump around like that, which is why mood auras are off. That said, if you WANT to create that situation, you can. Even with the mood aura off, a sim viewing a mood object will give them that mood; they just won’t get it from wandering into the room. Like the ‘well decorated’ moodlet, the emotion moodlets gained from mood aura objects only lasts as long as the Sim is in the room.

The strategy player in me LOVES this system. By gathering lots of objects with the same mood aura, you can place them all in a room and then pair them with objects that make use of that mood, which is exactly what I did with Lady Cheshire’s “Inspiration Room” (Which, by the way, is uploaded as a stand-alone room on the gallery).

And that leads me to the crux of decorations and mood auras: Paintings

First off, painting as an activity has been nerfed a bit. Children cannot paint. Instead they get their own activity table where they draw pictures to practice their artistic skill (that can be wall-mounted like paintings). The act of painting does not generate fun anymore and you have to pay for art supplies every time you start a new painting. That said, you will still be able to sell your paintings for a profit when you finish them, even at low skill levels (with the profit margin getting higher as your painter goes up in skill). Your Sim also gets a positive moodlet when they finish a painting to make up for the lack of fun. The moodlet itself doesn’t help your fun meter, so you’ll have to find a way to entertain your Sim, just like writers have always had to do. That doesn’t mean painting is no longer worthwhile. Far from it! It’s actually become much more powerful.

Of all the objects in the game, none are more impacted by your Sim’s skill and current mood than the easel. There are, of course, normal paintings that can be done that give nominal amount of environmental happiness points based on the skill of the artist, and in that sense they function the same as they have in the past.

Of all the objects in the game, none are more impacted by your Sim’s skill and current mood than the easel.

However, once your artist has a few skill points under their belt, the fun begins. If your artist is in a specific emotion, they gain the ability, temporarily, to paint a painting of that emotion. If they are feeling sad, they can make a sad painting. If they are feeling inspired, they can make an inspired painting. These paintings, once completed, can have an emotional aura that can be toggled on! Thus, even without career reward objects, you can make paintings for a room to promote specific emotions. (Or just look nice if you decide to keep the aura off). The only catch is that your sim has to BE in that emotion to paint a painting with that emotion. This can be trickier with some emotions than others, but certainly not impossible.

Being inspired still helps the quality of your paintings, but if you want to paint a different emotion, you’ll need to be in that emotion. The one exception is the reward for completing the artist aspiration. You gain the ability to paint a painting of ANY emotion regardless of which emotion your sim is in…thus you could paint an energized painting while still inspired, thus giving its inspired a quality bonus. Also it’s important to note that this doesn’t render career objects meaningless. Career reward objects take the form of MANY different things, including functional items. Level 2 writing unlocks a computer that has an inspired emotional aura and it is still a fully functional computer. Further, the act of unlocking a career reward object gives you one copy of it for free (And allows you to purchase more of it in buy mode).

The Stinger

And that leads me to my one big disappointment with the Sims 4. People rant and scream and howl about missing toddlers, missing pools, missing color wheels, and missing flat terrain. MEH I say, MEH! The game stands on its own without these things and I didn’t feel myself missing them too badly. I’ve never felt compelled to join the chorus of naysayers and it certainly doesn’t warrant the level of venom that can be seen on some of the message boards and social media.

However there is ONE item that did sting for me. As of the version we played at Creators Camp…there are no portraits and there are no still life paintings. THAT one struck a cord. Portraits were actually one of the major inspirations for the Legacy Challenge in the first place when I created it back in the Sims 2. The ability to memorialize your family’s ancestors while they were in their prime and remember them long after they’ve been dead was a hallmark of the Legacy Challenge…and it is missing.

The Legacy Challenge wouldn’t be the Legacy Challenge without portraits.

There is a silver lining to this black cloud, however. When voicing my concerns to the devs, their response was of surprise. This was not a deliberate feature cut due to technical limitations, but rather just didn’t make it in due to all the work they were putting into expanding the painting system. This is actually a good thing. This means that the technical hurdles to implementing portraits are not nearly as high as, say , pools and toddlers. They indicated that we might be able to see a return of portaits and still life paintings before an expansion pack, either via official patch or done via a mod.

The Legacy Challenge wouldn’t be the Legacy Challenge without portraits, and despite their current absence, I am writing them into the challenge (along with other ways to honor your ancestors ). The moment they make their return via official patch or mod, they will be brought back into the challenge in full force. If you are a modder and you make a mod to put this functionality in, I will feature you and credit you like crazy and direct Legacy Challenge Players to your site to get your mod (hint hint nudge nudge wink wink).

There is also a chance that EA might beat modders to this. In the final day of Creators Camp, we were all asked what the #1 concern was. Half the group said color wheel, the other half said terrain tools. I stood alone and voiced my concern about portraits, so EA is aware of how important they are to Legacy Challenge players.

Do not use this fact as fuel to say ‘oh Sims 4 is garbage, they’re trying to penny pinch us and sell us stuff back as DLC’. NO. The work they did to expand and improve the painting system is clear and the benefit is tangible. I’m no less excited to play the Sims 4 the day it releases because of this, I’m just going to keep my eyes peeled for a portrait patch/mod.