E3: Discussing the next generation of the Legacy Challenge

Let me share with you some thoughts that are bouncing around in my mind in regards to how the Legacy Challenge might take shape after watching the new E3 Sims 4 Gameplay Trailer.

Personality Traits: While there are fewer per sim, they seem to have a much more powerful effect on said Sim and how they interact with the world. This bodes VERY well for the Legacy Challenge. I *hope* they have a randomize button in the game as I intend to carry on the tradition of ‘customize the founder, random for everyone else’.

One other item does warrant some more investigation. In the Sims 3 Legacy Challenge, I introduced an optional rule where you could define a “Family Trait”… a single trait that was exempt from the random rule and that every Sim in the family would get. I am torn on this as this could go one of two ways. Because there are fewer total traits that a single Sim can have, allowing players to define just one of them might take away some of the uniqueness and unexpected gameplay challenges that come from an heir rolling up traits you’re not used to dealing with. On the other hand, this may be to the benefit of seeing a single Legacy Family bloodline interact with each other. The deciding factor will likely be how Sims with the same trait interact with each other. If you pick the ‘athletic trait’ for the whole family and all it does is result in the whole family just talking about fitness and being fit…ehhh not so much. However, if it does more dramatic things like make intense rivalries develop between siblings and frequent challenges to physical contests of strength and endurance to the point where it could cause family members to either love or hate each other would make for some *very* interesting gameplay.

So random traits are in, but the jury is out if I’ll be doing a ‘family trait’ side rule.

Seeing that sharing and swapping content looks to be a lot easier in The Sims 4 than it is in The Sims 3, this opens up a new style of Legacy Challenge gameplay: Succession games. The idea being that you play a Legacy family for exactly 1 generation, then toss it up on the exchange and grab someone else’s version of a different family and play that family for 1 generation. I would build in the optional succession game rules into the Legacy Challenge itself so everyone who participates in succession games is playing by the same set of rules. And of course, you don’t need to do a succession game. The heart and soul of the Legacy Challenge: Taking a single family of your creation from 1 to 10 generations will absolutely be the core of the challenge. Succession game rules will just be there to mix some things up and will be an optional addition.

Being that Legacy Houses are one of the big game-long masterpieces, being able to share them more easily will be a good thing. In terms of downloading and importing Sims themselves from the exchange… you’ll be welcome to, but I don’t think they’ll be eligible to be Legacy Family spouses. The idea is that your Legacy spouse’s traits are somewhat out of your control and being able to download someone with the exact hand-picked traits you want kinda goes against the nature of the challenge. Now…if there is an option to download “A random Sim” from the exchange and it pulls someone whom you know nothing about: They’ll be fair game. I need to see how this is implemented before I can give more details on how it will impact the challenge.

The next bit of information that perked my interest is the persistent world. Now, this feature was touted back when the Sims 3 was released…the idea that people who you don’t play continue to live their lives ‘off screen’. However, the simulation was not terribly deep. The Sims 4 has a chance to get this concept right, and if they DO, it will open up some very interesting possibilities.

A robust off-screen simulation would allow for the idea of cadet branches to be added to the Legacy Challenge. What is a “Cadet Branch?”  you ask? Well, when your main Sim has children, you get one heir and the rest are ‘spares’. Often times the player will move the spares out. If those spares get married and have their own children… that is what is known as a ‘cadet branch’ of your family. In previous versions of the Legacy Challenge, what happened to your spares (or anyone for that matter) that moved out didn’t matter at all for the challenge. However, if moving out a spare means they’ll start their own fully simulated off-screen life this might make things interesting.

What would it be like if you had a category of points that were based on how well your off-screen spares did? This would, of course, require that how well you raised them prior to adulthood would have an impact on how well they do outside the house on their own. The idea being that the more numerous and successful cadet branches you have, the more you get in points. If the game tracks total dynasty members (Including those born in cadet branches) there may be other opportunities for points just for filling the neighborhood with your distant kin. Of course, that might make for some inbreeding problems, but I see that as an interesting hurdle.

Speaking of lots of Legacy members, the fact that the one Sim in the video died of an intense emotional state might mean that death is more unpredictable and could strike more suddenly. If that is the case, that is a GOOD thing, as having a ‘spare’ or two might actually keep your family alive if the designated heir keels over after a particularly witty fart joke. This also means that the ‘collect all the death types’ challenge is going to be alive and well. What isn’t known is if the method of one’s death somehow carries over or is shown (IE ghost colors).

There are still TONS of X factors, many of which won’t be known until I have a chance to get my hands on the game itself. But until then, The Sims 4 looks like it will be fertile ground for the next generation of the Legacy Challenge!