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.
Creator’s Camp
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.
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:
Sims 4 Creators Camp: Creating a Legacy (Part Two)
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’)
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.
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.
Sims 4 Creator’s Camp – Careers and School
I was one of the lucky few to be invited to The Sims 4 Creator’s Camp at EA headquarters last week. I learned a lot about the game while I was there and thought that I would share some of that with you. To start, I will be discussing careers and school.
This is a rather lengthy article, but I wanted to cover as much as I could on the subject, so please bear with me.