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Scholar
Original Poster
#1 Old 14th Sep 2017 at 4:54 PM
Default Parenting: Values -- meh.
I'm a little disappointed with the values in parenting. It seems the only way to "encourage" bad behavior is to ignore it.

It sounds weird, but I like to play dysfunctional families now and then.

* I'd like it if some kids would rebel if their parents yelled at them. Right now, their relationship goes down with the parent, but they learn the same values as if you were firm about it.
* I wish parents could encourage bad behavior. I know dads who praise their kids for belching and farting. They have contests.
* I wish kids could learn from their parents behavior. Maybe if they witness mom or dad being rude or mean, they will react to it and learn its acceptable to be rude.

--
I also wish there were ways to praise or encourage good behavior. Maybe there is and my parenting skill isn't high enough.
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Field Researcher
#2 Old 14th Sep 2017 at 5:58 PM Last edited by grindingteeth : 15th Sep 2017 at 9:07 AM. Reason: too many quotations.
Quote: Originally posted by kewpie
It sounds weird, but I like to play dysfunctional families now and then.

You're far from alone - I am with you on that one. It's really, really hard to pull off in the Sims 4 though, everyone almost inherently gets along unless you actively choose only negative interactions, or the game has randomly generated a hate relationship between two sims. It's so frustrating, with families I find they just carry on as though they don't hate one another - smiling while talking in a chipper tone. Maybe I am wrong?
I miss uneven relationships as well... I've seen a few simmers through Let's play end up with them - but I think it's an occasional 'glitch'. It's never happened for me.

Good suggestions/points, I agree with all these things, especially learned bad behaviours and rebelling (I've yet to have a sim child reject their parent's requests ect.). Makes it more natural for ill-mannered parents to have ill-mannered families, and if you want a child to end up 'better', you'd have to work at it. Alas.

Quote: Originally posted by kewpie
I also wish there were ways to praise or encourage good behaviour. Maybe there is and my parenting skill isn't high enough.

There is, but only for some actions - such as cleaning up dishes, doing homework and taking out the trash. After they perform one of those actions, you can select, for example: Encourage recent behaviour> washing dishes. I do believe options expand as parenting is levelled up.
Scholar
#3 Old 14th Sep 2017 at 10:44 PM
Those are some good points.

Oh my god. And I had a kid that went through a distant phase, she was a total bitch. Constantly swearing, her dad had to constantly grounded her, she'd get multiple punishments on top of each other. The trait persisted right up until her birthday. She was so annoying, when she aged up I gave her the meanness trait for being such a little cow.

I also had at least two teens beat up their parents autonomously, I think the traits the kid had more to do with it than anything. One son was 'hot headed' and was very angry at the time, the other son was evil, and constantly having temper tantrums. My insane kid was always swearing and even into adulthood, he just randomly swears at people. I guess he has impulse control issues. I have to try to control him or he does destroy relationships.

I find that some of the phases don't really do much. "Loudness" just annoys the sims who have to hear the loud music. Rebellious doesn't seem to do *that* much, especially if the sim already has a bad trait like evilness. Is he being rebellious as normal or because he's evil or? I found "Distant" the most noticeable and annoying of the phases. Made the kid constantly tense and swearing. I've also seen people complain about this trait- like if your family makes you so tense why hang out with them all the time? ARGH make up your mind people, unless the kid has separate living quarters what choice do they have?
Forum Resident
#4 Old 14th Sep 2017 at 11:12 PM
So like...@ me next time. Unless all your houses are giant communal spaces with no doors, they have the choice to go to their room or literally anywhere else with their tense buff. But they choose to stay in the room with their parents and suffer.

Anyways, I agree. None of the phases seem to do much...or anything at all. I don't have radios and rarely have instruments so Loud is pretty useless. Picky eaters seem to just pick anything out of the fridge to eat anyways. I've never noticed a different between Rebellious sims and normal. The most annoying is Distant since I can actually see how terrible that one is.
Mean streak is odd. I think having certain traits should disqualify certain sims from having it. My good,cheerful sim beat up her dad(also Good) during this phase, yelling is one thing but, geez. But that's just me nitpicking.

I don't see much change in sims with all positive earned traits either. Other than the dishwashing bug, my sims acts the same as any other.
I cant see negative being any better. Whats the different between a low manners,responsibility, conflict resolution etc etc sim and a lazy, mean, snob etc sim?
Other than new manual renamed mean/mischief interactions?

FOR THE HORDE
Mad Poster
#5 Old 14th Sep 2017 at 11:43 PM
I've heard that Sims with the responsible trait will finish their daily tasks at work before coming home. Also, my teens who are responsible will start on their homework and school projects autonomously, even when they are low on fun. Not sure about the other characteristics.

Addicted to The Sims since 2000.
Theorist
#6 Old 15th Sep 2017 at 5:19 AM
I'm pretty sure we were told when parenthood released that we would be able to praise, encourage, or punish them for any behaviour, but it seems you can only punish what the sims team sees as good behaviour and praise what the sims team sees as good behaviour, like. fuck off. Don't tell me how to fucking parent my fucking kids. they can fucking swear if they fucking want to! D<
Test Subject
#7 Old 18th Sep 2017 at 9:55 PM Last edited by DakMamba88 : 18th Sep 2017 at 11:21 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by kewpie
I'm a little disappointed with the values in parenting. It seems the only way to "encourage" bad behavior is to ignore it.

It sounds weird, but I like to play dysfunctional families now and then.

* I'd like it if some kids would rebel if their parents yelled at them. Right now, their relationship goes down with the parent, but they learn the same values as if you were firm about it.
* I wish parents could encourage bad behavior. I know dads who praise their kids for belching and farting. They have contests.
* I wish kids could learn from their parents behavior. Maybe if they witness mom or dad being rude or mean, they will react to it and learn its acceptable to be rude.

--
I also wish there were ways to praise or encourage good behavior. Maybe there is and my parenting skill isn't high enough.



Just like everything else with this game, it sounds good on paper but the execution is bullshit. A kid the other day in my game started screwing the floor up with his paints, I had him punished with no tv and games, and what happens, he walks to his room and played games. They can't get this game right for shit!
Test Subject
#8 Old 26th Sep 2017 at 6:27 PM
I have one little monster in my first Save that belongs to the Bheedas. She seems to dislike her mother fairly intensely, and is a total daddy's girl, but her parents are too busy with the new twins to sort out her bad behaviour, so she swears at them, picks fights with her mother, and is mostly disobedient.

At first I was horrified, but later I thought I should probably let her run amok since this is a) a game and b) interesting, so I did. You CAN encourage bad behaviour - not just by ignoring it either. The actions the kids take (mostly autonomously as well although you can direct them to do it) like swearing and picking fights increases their negative values. Even with parents like the Bheedas trying occasionally to chasten their children, you can very easily overcome any kind of building responsibility by performing negative actions again. And that's actually kind of realistic: few parents encourage burping and swearing, but if they don't discipline it regularly and the kid keeps doing it, it becomes a habit for the child, and there's not a lot the parent can do about it. Little Jennifer is totally out of control despite periodic attempts by her father to teach her manners and discipline her most recent behaviour.

The other cool thing is the way the kids respond based on their personalities. The Feng's had a little boy called Gino who is positively adorable. But he's willful, and having his father opt to discipline him mildly by asking him not to be stubborn results in him completely ignoring it and learning nothing. If I wanted to let him turn into a little toerag I'd keep having them use mild discipline knowing it just doesn't work on him so he's not really being corrected. < That's also pretty realistic!
Theorist
#9 Old 27th Sep 2017 at 1:11 AM
I think the issue was more players not wanting to -force- their children to misbehave and just encourage their natural behaviour. It's less err how did the sims team put it "wondrous and unexpected" to have a little girl who farts and swears all the time if you spent her entire childhood forcing her to fart and swear on purpose. The decision was yours, hot hers and it makes it less interesting.

*I'm not saying that you shouldn't be able to direct them to do these things. just that there needs to be other reliable ways as well.
Field Researcher
#10 Old 27th Sep 2017 at 11:37 AM
Quote: Originally posted by ShigemiNotoge
I think the issue was more players not wanting to -force- their children to misbehave and just encourage their natural behaviour. It's less err how did the sims team put it "wondrous and unexpected" to have a little girl who farts and swears all the time if you spent her entire childhood forcing her to fart and swear on purpose. The decision was yours, hot hers and it makes it less interesting.

*I'm not saying that you shouldn't be able to direct them to do these things. just that there needs to be other reliable ways as well.


my YA sim has became unresponsible after skipping schools before he was going to age up
Test Subject
#11 Old 27th Sep 2017 at 3:14 PM
Quote: Originally posted by ShigemiNotoge
I think the issue was more players not wanting to -force- their children to misbehave and just encourage their natural behaviour. It's less err how did the sims team put it "wondrous and unexpected" to have a little girl who farts and swears all the time if you spent her entire childhood forcing her to fart and swear on purpose. The decision was yours, hot hers and it makes it less interesting.

*I'm not saying that you shouldn't be able to direct them to do these things. just that there needs to be other reliable ways as well.


I actually didn't have to force either kid to do the actions you know? They do them autonomously - and I choose not to make the parents correct the kids either. They either do it autonomously from time to time, or they don't do it at all. I didn't have to spend Jennifer's entire childhood forcing her to swear at or pick fights with her mum -she aged up and autonomously had a lower relationship with her, and because of that would misbehave. Her parents were busy when she was a toddler, so she would make messes (increased her negative values) throw tantrums, and play in the toilet, and as a player who doesn't like micromanaging, I didn't have to lift a finger.

Still haven't made a kid 'shout forbidden words' - they always seem to do it themselves. I dunno - maybe you just need to check your autonomy settings.
Theorist
#12 Old 27th Sep 2017 at 7:48 PM
Quote: Originally posted by LEONGenesis
Still haven't made a kid 'shout forbidden words' - they always seem to do it themselves. I dunno - maybe you just need to check your autonomy settings.

Check them for what? There are only two settings: on and off. If your sims are able to do anything on their own, it means they're doing everything on their own. :\
Test Subject
#13 Old 28th Sep 2017 at 3:57 PM
Quote: Originally posted by ShigemiNotoge
Check them for what? There are only two settings: on and off. If your sims are able to do anything on their own, it means they're doing everything on their own. :\


yep - that's true! And I like it - I direct them to do things in the order I want (like, stinky butt - stop watching tv and go take a shower for goodness sake!) but I really like to watch them interact the way they want. That element of surprise adds a lot to my game. Sometimes they flirt or -ahem- get romantic or pick fights and swear (I have three young adults in a new save that I created as young adults, and they swear constantly. I love it! Reminds me of me and my friends ) and I find it so entertaining to be like 'hey... what are you doing over there!' I love autonomy. I play TS2 as well and I do the same thing: I let them decide for themselves when to do stuff, and I play by following the story in my head. I dunno - maybe that's weird for people ( I know a lot of players like to have more control) but unless I have a specific goal in mind (like with my new save, wanting Anyelis to hook up with Salim) I won't push them to do anything in particular. I send 'em out to community lots, and watch 'em do random stuff. It's awesome! I will say though, I construct their personalities very carefully and I micromanage things like what kind (if any) of jobs they work, and where they go etc. I also prefer to pick what they eat... I'm weird like that.
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