The Sims 3 or 4, or neither?

I’ve been debating picking up the Sims, and I’ve been leafing through some of the listed WG and body modification mods.

I was wondering what everyone’s experiences with the games and the mods may have been, and if you all had any recommendations.

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I personally feel like both the Sims and their weight gain looks better in 3. However, the cool thing about Sims 4 is that you have more control over how they gain weight, as well as more general customization options for their body (though, from what I remember, the clothes are better in 3 than they are in 4 as far as base games go).

So I guess the real question is would you rather have slightly better looking weight gain, or more control over where they gain the weight?

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That is a really tough question to answer, actually. I think I’m going to have to hunt down some images online, lol.

I can’t really comment on the comparison between the two as I’ve only got Sim3 (and ambitions, generations, pets, supernatural, and seasons) - some of that was a Steam bundle discounted in a sale. Price was definitely a factor in my choice of going with the older game, as well as reading reviews that said it was actually a more enjoyable game. I didn’t know if I was going to enjoy it, so I put it on my Steam wishlist and waited for it to be reduced. If I remember correctly Sims4 isn’t on Steam, but only on EA’s platform which in my book is another negative against 4.

As far as mods go I run with Nrass MasterController, Nrass MasterControllerCheats, Nrass Overwatch, Nrass Decensor, and Consort 2x Weight and Fitness. Those first three I found pretty much necessary to keep the game working long term and un-bung it when it things go wrong - it’s not wonderfully stable, but it isn’t bad. The last two are for … reasons. Another benefit of the older game, of course, is that the base game isn’t updating, and the mods aren’t having to track changes.

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Yeah, 4 is origin only, which is a fair point against it for me as well. Did you use nexus mods? I was checking moddb, but it didn’t look like there was much there.

Having played both games a lot, I prefer 4 for weight gain by a large margin. The main two reasons is like Expeng said, you get a much larger amount of control over what body type you want. The other reason is the way that weight gain is handled between both games.

In the Sims 3, sims will only gain weight if you force them to over eat multiple times. It’s not very gradual weight gain either at the higher levels, it’s very noticeable as soon as they start eating that extra meal, the weight is put on immediately. What you eat doesn’t really have much impact either, eating multiple salads will generate pretty much the same result as downing a whole pizza. Finally, I’m not a fan of how sims will always gravitate back to their genetic weight over time.

The Sims 4, meanwhile, is my favorite in series for this aspect. The weight gain is very gradual, it takes a while before all of the weight shows up on the character (assuming you don’t do things that force the weight change, like going into CAS or saving the game). The most important thing that influences weight is what the sim eats rather than the amount. This means that eating salads all the time will result in maintaining weight, while just eating pizza and cake all the time, even if it’s only until the sim is full, will result in weight gain. Every food in the game has a “calorie” count, the impact on weight varies from food to food. Weight does not readjust to what ever they started at in this game, the only way to lose it is to work out or use weight loss items. The only issue I really have with this game is that working out makes you lose weight so absurdly fast that you pretty much have to avoid it entirely to gain weight. I’d recommend the “Fitness control” mod because it allows you to change how fast the weight gain and loss is as well as the maximum limit for fat and muscle, as well as the “Balanced Calories” mod which fixes it so that some foods aren’t as absurdly fattening as they are in the base game as well as making some foods induce weight loss.

Edit: also just something I forgot to mention, In the sims 4, the maximum fat in CAS isn’t the actual maximum fat.

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Interesting. In The Sims 3, the arm animations distort dynamically based on a Sim’s weight, where as in The Sims 4 a fat Sim’s animations are the same as a thinner Sim’s animations. In The Sims 4, you can change how large each part of the body is, so if you want the legs to be larger compared to the rest of the body, you can. You can’t in The Sims 3 without mods though.

Speaking of mods, if you use mods to increase the fatness of the Sims too much, they get deformed. This happens in both games, though it seems to happen at a lower fatness in The Sims 3. In The Sims 3, the shadows rendered on the Sim also glitch out when too fat. In The Sims 4, if a Sim is too fat, their stomachs may go inverted unless the stomach slider is stretched to a certain value. Also in The Sims 4, you’ll need to change the clothes of a Sim to see changes to the fatness level when the fatness level is out of the original limits.

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I don’t actually know what that means. CAS?

@Tag365

So, if I’m interpreting this correctly, in 4 their arms will just clip through their hips, whereas in 3 they change their swing to compensate. To be honest, I thought they just clipped through in all the games regardless.

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It means “Create a Sim”. It’s when you either start a new game or use either a mirror or dresser to change their clothing and hair after you started playing. The starting weight slider is only used when starting a new game/family, and not an existing one.

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I think I got most of my mods from Nrass Industries and Mod The Sims. Looking into the mods folder I also have some of the Johna Sliders too. Definitely read the install instructions for mods that add sliders. And a bunch of stuff/clothes (including @coldsteelj’s BBW cut clothes). I don’t think I pulled anything from Nexus - “Mod The Sims” is pretty much the goto place.

I do remember increasing the draw distance and playing around with some of the other graphics settings; otherwise from a short distance your sims snap to a default shape.

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Man I remember having a hard time trying to keep the weight on my sims, though it was Sims 3 for the DS (not the greatest since it is hard to even notice the weight gain). Haven’t played any Sims 4 stuff but would to not only play it but to do some of the business stuff I see featured in it (don’t know if it is mod or an expansion, or even if it is in the game normally).

Not sure if it’s in the game normally. When I was looking at wikipedia, the one expansion added a few new jobs and gave your sims the option of opening and operating a business.

I kind of want to open up “Wings and Rings,” the world’s first sports bar and jewelry store.

And I do mean first. Whatever my Florida based competition says is a filthy lie.

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If you are referring to if you are able to run your own store, that would be a feature in the “Get to Work” Expansion.

The “Get to Work” expansion’s science career also has some weight gain content in it. The scientist career allows you to make a weight gain serum that causes instant obesity (as well as a weight loss serum). Totally didn’t inspire a part of my project :smirk:. Fun part is sometimes the serum doesn’t work as intended and might do the opposite.

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Even before I saw that comment, I picked up and started installing Sims 4. That just helped to affirm that I’d made the right choice.

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And I must ask, as I’m not sure the mods are working correctly:

I downloaded the two mods @failmuseum mentioned above, “Fitness Controls” by roburky and the “Balanced Calories” mod. According to the description on Mod The Sims, all I should need to do to change things is to click on my active Sims, click the Roburky category, then edit to my hearts content.

Unfortunately, I can’t find the Roburky category. I have Script Mods enabled, though I’ll admit I’m not certain I properly installed the mods. I had to create a Mods folder for the game, and though I extracted the applicable files to the folder, I’m not certain if it did it properly.

If you didn’t, you need to restart the game after enabling script mods. If you did, you might have made the mod folder in the wrong place. They need to be installed here:
Users\UserNameHere\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\Mods, then just extract the contents of the archives into this folder and you should be done.

Some other tips for modding this game, I wouldn’t extend the fat range any further than x1.75, as anything larger will lead to clipping issues. occasionally, the belly might become super flat at certain weights on female characters with extended range, to fix this, click on a mirror or dresser and select “change sim”. This option allows you to play with the body shape as well as the clothes and hair. Simply drag the belly in the direction that would make it smaller until it suddenly fills out to what it’s supposed to be.

I would also recommend picking up “MC command center” once you are more familiar with the game. The main draw is it will simulate major life changes for families you are not playing. Things like, marriage, pregnancies, divorce, moving, changing careers, etc.

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That did it. The C drive on my comp is very small, so I had installed the game on my D drive. Basically, it split the files up in fun and interesting ways. And I had installed the x3, so this should be interesting, lol. If it’s too janky, I’ll change it out later.

Thanks for the help.

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Any time :slightly_smiling_face:.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that non-played sims will also gain and lose weight depending on their actions while they are loaded in lot you are playing in (like being called to a meal). So have fun with that information :wink: The fitness controls will by default have non active household sims weight and muscles be frozen, so I’d imagine you’d want to be changing that.

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Sims 4 hasn’t re-incorporated the eating contests from 3 and still has loads of annoying missing features, like the ability to have ceilings that aren’t inexplicably blank, custom colour schemes, spiral stairs and so forth. There’s a lot more room for creativity in Sims 3 overall which isn’t there in Sims 4, especially if you don’t shell out for every DLC. That said, the memory leaks, poor optimisation and limitations of 32 bit design make it unplayable over time.

Basically, another EA-ruined series that can’t reach its potential, which is a shame since I remember when the series first came out.

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Wait for real?? I never knew that. Is there a comparison photo anywhere?