Sims 3 Motive Decay Project- WIP Looking for feedback and input.

[smokeverbs]

Hey Vole, thanks for trying to make the game a little more difficult, but fuck you, you are retarded because I don't like that idea.

[jezzer]

Notice that he does not propose that it be made more difficult to have gay incest with your sim step-son.

Well, technically that wouldn't be incest.  Just creepy.

[spockblock]

Hey Vole, thanks for trying to make the game a little more difficult, but fuck you, you are retarded because I don't like that idea.

By jove, you've got it.

[Skadi]

Perhaps what you are looking for is more like TSM where your sim's motives with the basic furnishings climbs slowly. While I understand that you want to make the game harder, what you are propsing would make it harder all the time. Which would be unlike TS1 where you got to a point where the furnishings you could afford make grinding needs much easier.
Perhaps you would be better off making default replacements for a small selection of furnishings to reduce the motive refill and only furnishing houses with those items.

[J. M. Pescado]

TS1 wasn't really hard, either. Buying crap would simply delay your progress, so you simply learned clever coping mechanisms for dealing without. Almost always, these methods are better than the low-grade trash. Just like how TS2 had its own "fun" trick, where, instead of buying fancy entertainments, the fastest and most effective fun restorer was kicking the crap out of a cheap plastic flamingo. TS3 makes this even easier, since it makes the crap items utterly unworthy of even considering: If better items are available for free use simply by LEAVING YOUR LOT, using the open world effect, there is no reason to ever buy them.

[Claeric]

Perhaps what you are looking for is more like TSM where your sim's motives with the basic furnishings climbs slowly.

That's how it already works. More expensive usually means faster motive restoration, basic crap works poorly and it takes an eternity to restore motives.

The problem I'm having is the motives seem to drop so slowly to begin with that the length of time it takes for stuff to restore your motives is negligible in comparison. For example, totally made up numbers, if the motives dropped so that you had ~8 hours of free time in a day, you'd have 16 hours of motive-fixing and 8 hours of whatever. This is how it felt to me in Sims 1/2. But if they dropped so slowly you only needed to dedicate 16 hours of motive fixing every 40 hours, you've got 24 hours of free time to do whatever in between- that is how it seems to be to me in Sims 3. That's 24 hours of free time in 40 hours instead of
14 hours of free time every 40 hours. With such little free time in the second situation, buying new stuff makes things much easier because it gives you more free time. But with so much free time in the first situation, buying better stuff only serves to make the easy even easier instead of making the mildly difficult easier.

I mean I haven't sat here and done all the math to figure this crap out, but I know this much- Hunger, Energy, and Bladder dropping with specific durations is more desirable for me than Hunger, Energy, and Bladder slowing down as they get lower based on the moodlets you have from them. I already made the mod, I timed Hunger so you need to eat twice a day and Bladder so you pee 3/4 times a day, and in a few days of play I found myself having a lot more fun, because my sims had to be attended to more often than once per day per motive per sim. That is how I like to play- I like my sims to EARN their skills, earn new stuff, and earn an easier life. Not start with an easy life and make their way to an easier one. That's the whole reason I've got a bills mod that means they can't even spend all the money they start with on their house like in the base game. My sims have hard lives when they start out. They dont have 100 simoleons in their wallet and then earn enough money to pay for 6 weeks of bills within the first two days.

[jezzer]

My sims have hard lives when they start out.

I think everyone here is completely aware of how much your sims' lives suck.

[shadowelements]

My sims have hard lives when they start out.

I think everyone here is completely aware of how much your sims' lives suck.

It's so hard!

[BaronElectricPhase]

I have often wondered how the game play would go if the motives were inter-connected.

If full bladder then comfort decreases rapidly.
If starving then bladder decays more slowly.
If having mega-fun then fatigue/low comfort/ hunger is more easily ignored.
And others that I am too tired to remember at the moment.

I am guessing that the moodlets in TS3 may have already done this, (I have not studied them)
but in TS2.. might be interesting to experiment with.

[Kyna]

You make your sims spend their lives grinding, and then you complain when their skills are too high and they are too successful.  You are complaining about the result of your own actions.

On the "good objects are too easy to afford" issue, the answer is simple.  Don't buy them good objects, even though they can afford them.  Edit and save the neighbourhood before you play it to remove the good objects from public lots.  Replace quality objects on public lots with Kewian-based objects or take them out completely.  Take out the shelves with skillbooks in the library (or take out the library completely).  Remove any other skilling lots, too - we didn't have skilling lots in Sims 1.  Use the saved version of this neighbourhood as a template for future neighbourhoods.

If your sims are grinding skills too fast and getting promoted too fast, then make them do non-skilling things: socialise more, or hang out in the park doing bugger all.  If being friends with co-workers and their boss is a career metric then make them become enemies.  If socialising will build their charisma, then only socialise with sims who are best friends already, or socialise by fighting.

If you are incapable of controlling your urge to grind your sims unless the game imposes a limit on you, then maybe the tweak you should consider making is to adapt the fatigue from the athletic skills to apply to all skills.

EDIT @BaronElectricPhase

If having mega-fun then fatigue/low comfort/ hunger is more easily ignored.
<snip>
but in TS2.. might be interesting to experiment with.

TS2 had that.  If sims were "in the zone" they were less likely to drop out of an activity due to moods dropping.

[Claeric]

I have often wondered how the game play would go if the motives were inter-connected.

If full bladder then comfort decreases rapidly.
If starving then bladder decays more slowly.
If having mega-fun then fatigue/low comfort/ hunger is more easily ignored.
And others that I am too tired to remember at the moment.

I am guessing that the moodlets in TS3 may have already done this, (I have not studied them)
but in TS2.. might be interesting to experiment with.

Moodlets don't inter-connect motives but their whole purpose ois to have an effect similar to what you're talking about. Even if a sim is hungry and bored, they'll still use a skilling object as long as their overall mood- affected heavily by moodlets- is good. So if a sim who is vain and likes the outdoors goes outside after looking at themself in a mirror and there's music playing outside, they'll gladly work out even if they're hungry and bored and possibly even tired, because all they mostly care about is the overall mood.

[J. M. Pescado]

That's basically how things have always worked. Sims generally will do the action you require of them unless a motive is critical. Certain critical motives impose negative moodlets in addition. And, what, you pee four times a day? Do you have some kind of health condition, or just a really puny bladder? If you want a sim like that, give it the Incontinent trait.

[spockblock]

And, what, you pee four times a day? Do you have some kind of health condition, or just a really puny bladder?

I suspect most people pee at least four times a day.

You know, most people who aren't Pescado and haven't upgraded various body parts through black market purchases and home surgery kits.

[J. M. Pescado]

So if a sim who is vain and likes the outdoors goes outside after looking at themself in a mirror and there's music playing outside, they'll gladly work out even if they're hungry and bored and possibly even tired, because all they mostly care about is the overall mood.

Which isn't actually true, since they'll still stop if a motive runs low. What this change DID make was that sims are no longer subject to constant irrational mood swings which start the moment a motive is somehow not perfectly full. In previous editions of the game, a sim was NOT HAPPY if they hadn't eaten in the last 5 minutes. This, of course, is what caused sims to engage in seemingly obsessive behaviors aimed at fixing non-problems while ignoring actual problems. The change to moodlets has altered this behavior, because now a sim isn't immediately compelled to eat something the moment they are not perfectly full: It doesn't bother them until they are actually HUNGRY, like NORMAL PEOPLE.

The flip side of this is that sims no longer consider life seated upon a comfy reclining terlet parked in a shower with built-in TV while being fed through a tube, parked next to a bunch of other similarly configured people, the peak of existence. But you know what? NEITHER DO ACTUAL PEOPLE.

[kutto]

And, what, you pee four times a day? Do you have some kind of health condition, or just a really puny bladder?

I suspect most people pee at least four times a day.

You know, most people who aren't Pescado and haven't upgraded various body parts through black market purchases and home surgery kits.

Four times a day? Seriously? No way. If you are peeing that many times a day, you're pregnant, diabetic, or something else, and you are the person who keeps ruining road trips by making us stop every half hour.

[BaronElectricPhase]

The flip side of this is that sims no longer consider life seated upon a comfy reclining terlet parked in a shower with built-in TV while being fed through a tube, parked next to a bunch of other similarly configured people, the peak of existence. But you know what? NEITHER DO ACTUAL PEOPLE.

So *that* is what is wrong with my life?  Oh well, so much for efficiency!  

[cwurts]

And, what, you pee four times a day? Do you have some kind of health condition, or just a really puny bladder?

I suspect most people pee at least four times a day.

You know, most people who aren't Pescado and haven't upgraded various body parts through black market purchases and home surgery kits.

Four times a day? Seriously? No way. If you are peeing that many times a day, you're pregnant, diabetic, or something else, and you are the person who keeps ruining road trips by making us stop every half hour.

I bet you'd be surprised by how frequently you empty the ol' bladder.  A lot of times you go do it without realizing.  Why don't you come over to Oona's house, and we'll run a few tests together.

[spockblock]

And, what, you pee four times a day? Do you have some kind of health condition, or just a really puny bladder?

I suspect most people pee at least four times a day.

You know, most people who aren't Pescado and haven't upgraded various body parts through black market purchases and home surgery kits.

Four times a day? Seriously? No way. If you are peeing that many times a day, you're pregnant, diabetic, or something else, and you are the person who keeps ruining road trips by making us stop every half hour.

Kids and their enormous bladders. 5-6 times per day is probably average. If you drink a lot of water, even more. I know someone who went 12 times a day and wasn't diabetic, but just really liked beer.

Also, I challenge your road trip math. My four times a day would only result in you having to pull the car over once every six hours. You can drive from LA to San Francisco in that time without visiting a single rest area.

[Narmy]

Kids and their enormous bladders. 5-6 times per day is probably average. If you drink a lot of water, even more. I know someone who went 12 times a day and wasn't diabetic, but just really liked beer.

Also, I challenge your road trip math. My four times a day would only result in you having to pull the car over once every six hours. You can drive from LA to San Francisco in that time without visiting a single rest area.

I can down 2-3 sports drinks and a liter of soda a day, but I only "go" once or twice a day. 12 times is just insane....

[myskaal]

You're a bladder infection just waiting to happen.

[spockblock]

liter of soda a day, but I only "go" once or twice a day. 12 times is just insane....

Your future Type 2 diabetes will even all of this out for you.

[Narmy]

Your future Type 2 diabetes will even all of this out for you.

I don't drink that much every day, but I could if I didn't restrain myself. I guess it's better than being an alcoholic anyways.

[Sifaradia]

Would golden showers count in the daily tally? 

[jezzer]

Would golden showers count in the daily tally? 

Oh look, it's edgy.

[spockblock]

Would golden showers count in the daily tally? 

Oh look, it's edgy.

Ask it if it will play Two Fairlights, One Cup, then we'll see how edgy it is.