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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 28th Dec 2018 at 7:30 AM
Default CAS Traits Discussion
I'm bored, so why not?

What CAS traits do you find yourself using the most, and which ones do you find yourself almost never using?

Me, personally, I'm not a huge fan of the Emotional category, so I don't use those often. I also don't use the Outgoing trait, because I suck at continuous communication with my sims, so having the social needs bar go down super fast is very frustrating. Trait I use the most...probably Bro? I seem to like the idea of Sporty-type Sims, just without the actual Active trait.
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Instructor
#2 Old 28th Dec 2018 at 9:07 AM
The traits are sadly largely meaningless and do very little to change the Sims in meaningful ways, so I personally couldn't answer since it doesn't really matter. 99% of them merely provide emotions and the emotions are supposed to provide the personality, but the problem is that everyone gets the same brand of focused or flirty, so there's no unique personality going on beyond those preset emotional settings.

Exceptions to this would be ones that try to change how the Sim reacts to something in a way that actively changes their gameplay. Examples would be Slob, Squeamish, Unflirty and Loner, though even Loner is only on the list because the social demand in Sims 4 is RIDICULOUS and both the need decay and AI desire for socialization are set waaaaaaaaay too high, and Loner provides a partial (keyword partial since they still have those problems) solution to this. Suppose you could also list Goofball due to it's heightened chances to FUCKING MURDER YOUR SIM, but that's not exactly desirable, intentional or "interesting gameplay." Beyond that, Squeamish and Unflirty simply use the same tactic of setting the emotional penalty/action refusal high ENOUGH to matter, and Slob is probably the only one that's truly unique in it's design. (simply shutting off a penalty entirely)

As stated though, that's like 4 damned traits out of....how many? It's a really terrible ratio, and both the Vampirism and Fame systems provide more personality via their downsides.

Another issue is that most of the more interesting traits are negative traits or downsides. There's nothing wrong with downsides and they're actually a very welcome addition, so much so that I hesitate to even say this next part since lord knows Sims 4 needs more drama, struggles and difficulty. However, I think it's also a problem that the Sims team only seems capable of making bad traits interesting and doesn't have any good traits that are unique. Slob is debatably a good trait and as stated, it's the only one providing a cool benefit instead of a downside. It would be nice if the Sims team was capable of creating traits like Squeamish that effectively ban your sim from all of the nature aspirations/skills AND they can make good positive traits that feel unique. Neutral traits that are neither positives nor negatives would also be desired.

What if Art Lover significantly heightened your chance of making Masterpieces?
What if Good and Evil Sims start out at hate for each other by default and fighting against this is about as hard as making a Squeamish Sim fish or an unflirty Sim flirt? They'd likewise start higher at relationship with like-minded Sims.
What if Cheerful Sims automatically cut the duration of all negative emotions in half?
What if Creative Sims took 35% less time to create things, such as novels, paintings and songs?
What if Genius Sims learned skills significantly faster?
What if Clumsy Sims had the trait of Unlucky/Loser Sims from Sims 3, where Grim refuses to take them if they die prematurely, and they likewise have heightened chances of experiencing bad events? (electrocution, fire, rocketship crash)
What if Insane Sims had their AI tweaked so that they'll randomly use ANY interaction during socialization?

Such changes would mean that, for example, a Creative Art Lover would be SIGNIFICANTLY better at painting than a sim that has neither trait, as they both produce the paintings faster and are more likely to produce higher quality works. As it stands though, you can make a Creative Art Lover and a Clumsy, Insane Bro and both of them will produce paintings with identical proficiency. Getting the Bro on the same level as the Art Lover is as simple as having him cloudgaze before he begins.

There's just sooooo much unused potential with the traits, so it's really hard to praise any of them. We have a small handful of traits that feel like meaningful choices for character creation, while all the rest are sadly mostly flavor.
Scholar
#3 Old 29th Dec 2018 at 5:11 PM
@DeservedCriticism You mean how traits in Sims 3 ended up making a difference? Artistic Sims learned Art faster, while Genius Sims learned other skills, especially logic, much faster. =)

I've tried to use more traits lately, but they never seem to be all that interesting. The Bro trait just seemed stupid. Most of them just don't seem to make much of a difference in the long run; as DeservedCriticism also said, it's still the same emotions. I try to not use Emotional ones because of the random emotion added. I enjoy my Romantic sim, but I want you to not be Flirty right now. I don't want to have to do 3 things to add Focus, so your emotion changes. Probably reason why I tend to go more for Custom traits... especially those that add a certain amount of 'negative' balance to them.

I am going to make a Kleptomaniac Sim for my homeless challenge; I've seen them played, but not sure how much fun they can be.
One Minute Ninja'd
#4 Old 30th Dec 2018 at 12:41 PM
I've been using more geek and loner of late. Saves me from loading screens just to walk across the street as my sim is content to sit at home on the computer. Kinda like avoiding the subway to get anywhere. More realistic for my simself.
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