gameplay notes: traits and aspirations

With the addition of toddlers in TS4, I have had gameplay on the brain. Before I launch into the next big chunk of stories, I thought I'd finally put this one up.

Traits:

I’m doing traits my own way (like I do everything else my own way, lol!). First of all, 3 core traits is just not enough for me. Five wasn't enough in TS3, so three would bore me to tears! And additionally, limiting my sims to just core traits is not enough either, especially when the game is full of so many really interesting and useful traits!

And I use [this mod] to enable debug cheats so that I may choose any trait in the game. I use [this mod] to allow my sims more than 3 core traits. The game already allows sims to have as may reward or bonus traits as they want.

Traits can only be chosen on the sim’s following birthdays. By the time they reach young adulthood, they will have grown into 6 traits, and they can have up to 10 by the time they reach their elder years.


trait # 0: newborn, age 0: a character trait
— at birth, the baby will be assigned a one word character trait. This trait is for storytelling, but it also might affect what traits are chosen in game as they grow up. I use a ROS roll for this, but there are also a bazillion character trait rollers on the internet and any one of them would be good to use. Here's a good one.

trait # 1: toddler, age 6 months: a randomized trait
— this trait will be one of 8 toddler traits in game and it is rolled at birth.

trait # 1: revisited, age 5: the toddler to child transition
— upon growing into a child, they will lose their toddler trait. But I figure it should have some influence over how they behave as a child. For example, a charming toddler might become an outgoing child. Or a wild toddler might grow up to love the outdoors. So the first trait they choose at age 5 will be influenced by their toddler trait.

trait # 2: child, age 5: zodiac trait
— my children get two traits at age 5, so the second trait is assigned after one common facet of the sim’s birth zodiac sign. You know, if you Google "Leo personality" and thousands of personality profiles will pop up. Some of these are simple and some are quite complex, even going into what kind of lovers they'll be or what kind of careers they might have. I know it's pseudo-science at best, lol! But I also know my zodiac sign is roughly 75% true for me, and they're roughly 75% true for a lot of people I know, so I'm sticking with it.

At age 5, they will also get their childhood aspiration, which was rolled at birth.

trait # 2.5: temporary optional toddler boost
— if a child did well as a toddler, they will get a skill boost trait. My sims will keep this trait until their 12th birthday, then they will grow out of it. By default, they can keep it for life, I believe. But not my sims, because I expect most of them will probably earn this and I really don’t need my sims to skill up any faster than they already do!

trait # 3: child, age < 12: childhood aspiration bonus
— some time before their child years are over, they may or may not earn their child aspiration reward trait. Some of my children will earn their aspirations, but others I might decide that the random aspiration did not fit the personality they were growing into, and they will “fail” it.

If a child fails to earn their aspiration, they will be given a corresponding negative trait instead. For example, a child who fails motor skill could end up clumsy or squeamish. A child who fails social skill could be loner or non-committal. A child who fails mental might be bro or dunce. The child who “passes” their childhood aspiration will get to keep the skill boost in those subjects. This will be their third trait.

trait # 4: tween, age 12: aspiration trait
— the 12 year-old aspiration and its corresponding bonus trait are very important and must be chosen carefully, because this trait sticks with the sim for life, even though they are allowed to change their aspiration until their 18th birthday. This aspiration can be chosen freely.

trait # 5: teen, age 15: inherited
— the sim will inherit one trait from one of their parents or grandparents. This can be any core trait or reward trait, including unearned aspiration rewards. Absolutely any trait that is present on their parents/grandparents trait panels is allowed to be chosen.

trait # 6: YA, age 18: chosen trait
— upon their young adult birthday, they may choose any core trait they wish. At this point, they should have a panel of 6 adult traits.

optional: character value traits, age 18
— also upon their YA birthday, they may have earned any number of positive or negative character value traits. Most sims will earn at least one, but it can be between 0 and 5 traits.

YA, age 18: second aspiration (no new aspiration trait)
— sims may choose a secondary aspiration to work on. They can only have one aspiration active at a time, but my sims will be allowed to switch between two. However, they will forever keep the aspiration trait they chose at age 12.

Sometimes, upon visiting CAS with the "fulleditmode" cheat on, their secondary aspiration might leave an additional aspiration trait. My sims aren't allowed to keep it when that happens (because it's not supposed to happen, it's just kind of a glitch). I'll use cheats to delete that one.

trait # 7: YA, age 30: chosen/reward
— another chosen core trait. Or, starting at their 30th birthday, they can start using their aspiration points to purchase a reward trait. No more freebies, they have to pay for them with points now.

On every decade birthday after, they will choose one more trait, core or reward, up to a maximum of 10 traits.

trait # 8: A, age 40: chosen/reward

trait # 9: A, age 50: chosen/reward

trait # 10: E, age 60: chosen/reward

10 traits maximum on their 60th birthday, because any more than that gets kind of cheaty. Although, I will still allow them to gain aspiration reward traits for completing their aspirations.

Changing a trait?

I would like to develop a midlife crisis roll, one of the results of which could include changing a trait. That would happen on or around their adult birthday, age 36-40 or so.

I am also thinking about ideas of how a gameplay or story event might cause severe trauma, and how that might alter a character's personality. I have not had this happen in the story yet—or, not this story, anyway—but I am contemplating a few scenarios. For example, if a character had a severe physical accident, I might change a trait to "lazy" or "clumsy" to represent their new difficulty with physical activity. Or if they had an event of extreme emotional trauma, I might change a trait to "gloomy" or "loner" to represent the change that kind of emotional upset might have had on their personality.

So that change would be prompted a major and unfixable life event, not just whenever I feel like it.

When I want to inflict a temporary emotion for a longer span of time, debug cheats can add debug emotional moodlets that last for 20 sim-days, and those are useful. Especially since TS4 sims are only sad for like two days after somebody dies. :\

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Trait categories in TS4:

Like I did for TS3, I made a chart of our current TS4 traits (plus my favorite CC traits) and sorted them according to the TS2 personality structure, which I am still in love with. A lot of what I wrote in that TS3 post still applies, just with different traits and aspirations to play with this time around. (And more new ones which we are sure to get in the coming years. I will keep this chart updated as new packs come out.)

(click for bigger)

Aspirations:

I know I don't always treat my sims like sims, but one way that I do is their aspirations. And it's because I totally believe that RL people behave and orient their lives according to their aspirations. I could go through all of the people in my life and say, "Oh, she is totally a popularity primary with a family secondary." or "He is absolutely a fortune primary with a creativity secondary." Many RL people have life goals that they prioritize above other things, whether it's having a big family or getting married or rising to the top of a career or becoming highly skilled at something.

So I am very happy that TS4 has aspirations back! But it breaks my structure of six main aspiration categories, because we have way more than that. So I've lumped a few of them into new groups of similar things. I've sorted all of the TS4 aspirations into my own rough parent categories, which focus on the following six things: curiosity, family, achievement, ego-centrism, experience, and creation. 

Some combinations might make more sense than others, but this is a work in progress. Especially since they're always adding new aspirations to sort into the equation. 

Because aspirations in TS4 can be changed so freely, I wanted to have rules in place for when and how my sims would be allowed to do so. It makes the characters feel too wishy-washy otherwise. Though for some of my sims, I suppose it’s true that there just isn’t a suitable aspiration (pleasure, hello!) available to them, and so they might waffle between three or four other things and nothing ever makes them happy.

Anyway…

Rules for choosing aspirations:

Primary adulthood aspirations are chosen at age 12. For teenagers only, I allow them to freely change their aspiration as many times as they want until their 18th birthday, because the teenage years are meant to be a time of exploration and indecision. But no matter what they change to, their 12-year-old aspiration trait is still very important because it will stick into adulthood no matter which aspiration they choose later. (Like Reid, who will keep his dastardly trait for life, even though he ditched his mischief aspiration.)

By age 18, I expect them to have hunkered down with one primary aspiration which can no longer be changed. At age 18, I will also allow them to pick a secondary aspiration to switch between. Because with TS4 aspirations, there are many times when progress is stalled, waiting on one accomplishment that can't be done immediately. So my sims will only be allowed to switch their focus between those two aspirations freely.

After that, they may only begin to work on another new aspiration after each decade of life. So, every ten years. 3 aspirations on their 30th birthday. 4 aspirations on their 40th birthday, and so on. After the first two aspirations, they don't have to take on any more if they don't want to, but it could get pretty boring if they didn't.

Because some aspirations take a lifetime to complete (like some of the family ones) or at least cannot be worked on until adulthood, teenagers are discouraged from choosing the following aspirations: family/big happy family, family/successful lineage, family/super parent, romance/soulmate, foodie, mixology, knowledge/computer whiz, knowledge/renaissance sim, popularity/joke star.

Times when aspiration changes are allowed:
- age 12-18 freely.
- changing sub-aspiration focus within the same major category prior to 50% completion. (For example, knowledge: nerd brain to knowledge: renaissance sim. Or popularity: party animal to popularity: leader of the pack.)
- switching out an ill-fitting aspiration for a newly introduced aspiration that was not available before (new EPs or new mods).
- age 36 adult mid-life crisis: sim may change out one of their 3 allowed aspirations to anything they choose.

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So that's how I develop my sims into well-rounded characters, with a focus on the way a personality is shaped by their childhood—a little bit of nature and a bit of nurture, too. A lot of this I borrowed from my gameplay in previous games, but I adapted it a little for new gameplay in TS4 as well.