Regular-Forum Fervor! Let's Play the Sims 4!

[nosimpleway]

The previous game in the series was one of my more popular LPs, but I'm willing to grant that looping in another forums' worth of readers was a factor. Nothing so complicated this time, in no small part because I'm not any less busy than I was when I dumped my Deltarune LP. I'll get back to this when I get back to it, but I'm sure not having to transcribe an ingame script will be a major timesaver.

Anyhow, let's get started. Started on...


It was on sale for cheap on the Steam winter sale, so I figured what the hell. It couldn't possibly be as shoddily programmed as the Sims 3, right?


Then I softlocked while playing the tutorial. Oh boy.

(There's a point in the tutorial where you have to "Get to Know" your obligatory roommate. But if you already did that in your first conversation because you know how dialog prompts work in the series, you can't do it again, and thus can't progress. You're stuck! I hope there's nothing drastically different from The Sims 3 in controls and setup or anything.)

So, new game. Let's hit up the character generator and see what's up.


Oh, the default is a "start of Ultima 4, or maybe Pokemon Mystery Dungeon" style personality quiz. I guess that beats choosing options out of a list like before.


Then your character gets attributes based on the answers you gave and a more or less randomized appearance. Semirandom, maybe, since this suave motherfucker comes with a suit and a coif that's going to put someone's eye out if he's not careful, rather than sweatpants and a dad 'stache.

So eh, let's look through the options. There's some weird hair, you can give somebody snaggly or buck-teeth, you can set someone's default outfit to their swimsuit, you can make someone walk around everywhere they go in pink fuzzy slippers.

...pink... fuzzy slippers...

Pink fuzzy slippers, huh. Hmm. I wonder if I can...



heh heh heh


: oh boy, this is gonna be a hoot. i can tell.

: WHAT IS THIS? WHERE IS MY COOL BATTLE BODY? WHAT IS ALL THIS... FLESHY STUFF ALL OVER US?

Look man, there's no "make an actual skeleton" character option. The top with the red scarf was as close as I could get to your default look. I'm doing the best I can here. As far as I can tell, there's no way to make one character shorter or taller than another. And look, Undyne still has both of her eyes.





: here, i can use this dialog portrait if it'd make you feel better.

: IT DOESN'T!!

[nosimpleway]

Even the ingame loading screen seems confused about my chargen choices. Ah well.

This seems like as good a post as any to reserve for a table of contents later on.

[nosimpleway]

As in Sims 3, the sims themselves have a series of desires, goals, and innate traits. Since I used the personality quiz for Undyne, Papyrus, and Sans here, I didn't choose exactly what any of them are. So you get "uh, okay" choices like Undyne starting out as an artist. The quiz did get some things right, though: Undyne's first two ingame goals are "go work out at the gym" and "work out for at least 8 hours total". Papyrus starts with Charisma and wants to make friends and go on a date. Sans has the "Lazy" attribute right off the bat.

Oh. Sans and Papyrus are brothers ingame. Undyne is just their roommate. Since she's not related to the others I wanted to give her a different last name, but there's not enough room for "Undyne, the Spear of Justice" in the name fields. So she's the rather awkward "Undyne Justispeare".


Left to their own devices so the AI makes the decision of what each character does first, Papyrus and Undyne immediately start a conversation while Sans goes to take a nap inside.

Sometimes things just work out okay.

: "SO... AS I WAS SAYING ABOUT SANS..."

: "Oh my god! What's that thing behind you?!"

: "I THINK IT'S... A ROCK?"

: "Wow! Who did the landscaping for this place, anyway?"


No one has to go to work or do anything in particular today, so the two buddies go to the gym like Undyne has a hankerin' to do. I didn't even look at the characters' other outfits, so I'm as surprised as anyone that Undyne's workout uniform is basically a copy of the Bride's iconic jumpsuit from Kill Bill. I'll... I'll let that one stay.

Papyrus changes into his JOGBOY outfit and hits the treadmill while Undyne tries to build up boulder-suplexing upper body strength.


Eventually a flirty young woman named Eliza Pancakes starts chatting up Papyrus.


: "HEY!!! DOWN IN FRONT!"


His charming naivete and oblivious self-centeredness get Papyrus off to a good start with making friends.


Even when a gym employee interrupts to start hooting encouragement at him, Papyrus just ends up befriending both.


While all that's going on, Undyne's gotten pumped from her workout. She still has seven hours to go on the amount of time she wants to spend working out, so I send her out for a jog. Wonder how she's doing...


...um...


: "What? WHAT?! I'm working out here, too! Shut up!!!"

[nosimpleway]

To my knowledge there's not a "just give up... i did..." character lifetime goal option. Sans wants to build a career out of being funny and perhaps plaguing people's lives with incidental music. I leave the other two to their gregariousness and their mid-sidewalk situps and buy a few props for the household, giving Sans a chance to practice the guitar.


There's an event! A bunch of randos in a welcoming party show up!
That's Marissa Herring in the blue blouse, standing next to Liberty Lee. The two in the back are Travis Scott and Summer Holiday. I have no idea who may or may not end up being important in the LP narrative so I guess I'll just introduce people as they show up?

: "literally the only thing i know about you is your name but i think we'll be good pals, Summer."


: "the ol' whoopie-cushion-in-the-hand trick. it's ALWAYS funny. you guys are all right, come on in."






Eventually Papyrus and Undyne come home from the gym on their own. Papyrus gets in first, so he calls dibs on the shower. Undyne keeps her post-workout funk away from the crowd and practices her art while she waits her turn.


: "obviously knock-knock jokes are the way to go. they're the most sophisticated form of humor."

: "knock, knock."

who's there?

: "Papyrus just set the kitchen on fire."

Papyrus just set the kitchen on fire who?


: "no, i mean Papyrus just actually set the kitchen on fire."

: "WE ARE OUT OF SPAGHETTI AND IT IS THE ONLY THING I KNOW HOW TO COOK!"


If there's an "extinguish person" option I didn't see it, so here Sans is actually spraying extinguisher past Papyrus and putting out the oven fire instead.


I wonder if Papyrus could have run and jumped in the shower to put himself out, if Undyne wasn't in it.

: "I TOLD him I used the last of the spaghetti!"

[nosimpleway]

Sans gets a nice :smug: character portrait for putting out the fire before it could do any more damage than it did.


Sans has been waiting to use the toilet for the entire time both his roommates have been home, and now Papyrus needs another shower to wash off the singe. What this house really needs is a second bathroom, so I hop into Build mode real quick and put one together in the master bedroom. Sans gets to take a whizz, Papyrus gets in the shower again, and Undyne comes out as the houseguests start cutting up the cake they brought.


As Undyne takes a plate, Liberty chimes in that the fruitcake is an old family heirloom. Ugh. 'Twas a trap all along.


Sans's starting aspirations were to practice his guitar enough to bring his Music skill up to two, and to be funny at five people. The main challenge here is finding people who think puns are funny! But he managed to pull off both tasks, and has earned some lifetime satisfaction points. Or money. I'm not sure which. (That looks like the symbol for Simoleons, the ingame currency for Sims games, but in Sims 3 you didn't get cash for completing aspirations, you got achievement points you could cash in for character benefits.)


The Welcome Wagon event ends and everyone leaves (except Marissa, who is plunking out a tune on Sans's guitar in the back room). And then who shows up but Eliza Pancakes from the gym! Papyrus heads out to greet her, and...


If these were actual Undertale characters I'm sure that Papyrus would be completely immune to the "Embarrassed" emotional state.


Aha, despite the fact that her mood has been "Flirty" for every interaction with Papyrus, Eliza is married! Maybe that's why things went so wrong.


Sometimes the game doesn't play well with screenshot software, apparently. I've got a few screencaps that turned out looking like this.


I don't know what Eliza is doing with the bathroom mirror in that botched "where did all the furniture go" screenshot, but Papyrus heads back to his bedroom to try to talk himself down from the emotional precipice he finds himself on. Poor guy went from being on fire to making an ass of himself to his first friend in his new home.

: "THIS HAS BEEN... A ROUGH DAY FOR THE GREAT PAPYRUS."

[nosimpleway]

It's canon that neither Papyrus or Undyne can cook worth a damn, but Sans can make a homemade quiche (he just can't handle the responsibility of taking care of it). I guess it falls to Sans to make the household meals. He picks up the Cooking skill pretty easily, though.


Eventually the result is two bros helping each other do prep work, chatting and catching up on the events of their first day in their new home. Papyrus nicks his finger with the knife a couple of times, because of course he does.

: "i'm tellin' ya... i played my guitar in the back corner there for a little while, then bam -- bathroom. no idea how that happened."


All is as it should be, as the brothers truly love one another even if Sans gets on Papyrus's nerves a bit.


So ends our first day of The Sims 4. Stay tuned next time!

: "for more 'My Three Skeletons'!"

: "SANS! THAT IS NOT THE NAME OF THIS GAME!"

: ""Who are you saying is the third skeleton, anyway?"

[nosimpleway]

Sans Undertale, "Joke Star"
Current Satisfaction: 550
Desires: Join the "Comedian" branch of the Entertainer job tree; write 3 Comedy routines; raise Comedy skill to level 6
Job: C-Lister (Entertainer job path, I think)
For promotion: Achieve level 2 of Guitar skill or Violin skill (done), Achieve level 2 of Comedy skill (done)
Daily job task: practice Guitar or Violin
Skills: Comedy and Charisma 3, Guitar and Violin 2 (...?), Cooking 1
Traits: Good, Goofball, Lazy, Gregarious. Reward Trait (for lifetime path): Hilarious

Papyrus Undertale, "Amore Amateur"
Current Satisfaction: 160
Desires: Have a Boyfriend/Girlfriend; Go on 2 Dates
Job: Team Mascot (Athlete career path)
For Promotion: Reach level 3 Fitness, Reach level 3 Charisma
Daily job task: Work out (50% done? Huh? He was at the gym for hours! I guess he spent too long talking to Eliza for it to count.)
Skills: Handiness 3 (which didn't come up at all, but noted), Fitness 2, Cooking and Charisma and Comedy 1
Traits: Alluring, Romantic, Active, Cheerful. Reward Trait: Companion

Undyne Justispeare, "Bodybuilder"
Current Satisfaction: 75
Desires: Work out for 8 hours total (2 done); Work out at the gym (done)
Job: Hungry Artist (Painter career path)
For Promotion: Reach level 4 Painting skill
Daily Job Task: Practice painting (not done, even though she made two paintings on her tablet today. I wonder why those didn't count.)
Skills: Fitness 3, Painting and Fishing (ha ha) 2, Comedy 1
Traits: High Metabolism, Ambitious, Active, Hot-Headed (seriously, this triggered and Undyne got angry in her sleep.) Reward Trait: Long Lived

[Newbie]

This is an amazing start.

I thought I remembered people being really disappointed with this game, but thinking about it more, I'm getting it confused with the latest Sim City. The Sims 4 is a complete blind spot for me.

[Mongrel]

Oh man, this is brilliant.

[mharr]

What would it cost to add the Jungle Adventure DLC to your system so the good brothers can be saved from the itchy curse of flesh?