The Sims has undergone many changes throughout its history. Expansion packs and other add-ons have given players the chance to explore new worlds with fun new items, opening up more creative opportunities and gameplay options. However, once you have mastered the mechanics of The Sims and learned to manage the needs of your virtual household, you may find yourself looking for something more.
This is where mods come in. Mods are a great way to upgrade your gameplay, allowing you more freedom to make the game what you want. Whether you want to make the life-simulation aspects more realistic or to add an extra level of challenge to the game, the wide range of fan-made mods means there is something to suit almost every fancy. Here are just six of the best mods to check out for The Sims 4.
Note: This article was updated on November 1 by Noelle Corbett to add another mod, Custom Gender Settings, which makes it easier to access The Sims 4's gender customization options for existing Sims.
Meaningful Stories
The Meaningful Stories mod from RoBurky will change the way your Sims emotions work and how they react to life events and experiences. It comes packed with two of RoBurky's other mods: Emotional Inertia and True Happiness. With the Emotional Inertia mod, your Sims' emotions will feel a little less simulated and a little more realistic, while True Happiness will cause your Sim's default emotional state to be more neutral so that happiness will only be brought about by something truly special.
In the base game, Sims often gain positive or negative moodlets from simply enjoying a great meal or from being around objects with an emotional aura. However, this will disappear just as quickly as it came on, and can even change your Sim's overall mood. With the Meaningful Stories mod, your Sims will no longer switch between two emotional extremes. Instead, it will be more subtle and the mood will dissipate over time rather than disappearing at once. Sources of emotional moodlets will also be randomized and may give stronger or weaker effects.
Risky Woohoo
Pregnancy was first introduced to the series in The Sims 2, and with it came the option to Woohoo or Try for Baby, options that are still present in The Sims 4. Try for Baby doesn't guarantee that your Sim will get pregnant, but choosing to Woohoo opts out of the mechanic entirely.
With the Risky Woohoo mod from PolarBearSims, players can change the odds of a Woohoo leading to pregnancy. The mod allows other factors, such as traits and even the location of the interaction, to either increase or decrease the possibility of a Woohoo resulting in pregnancy. The mod even makes it possible for Sims to be infertile or have pregnancy difficulties, which changes the kinds of stories you tell with your Sims and makes the game more realistic.
Height Slider
Create-a-Sim allows for an astounding level of customization, and you can change almost everything about your Sims' appearance from their faces to their feet. However, there's still no way to control your Sims height, meaning every pre-made and player created Sim of the same life stage is the same height.
The Height Slider mod changes that, giving players control over the height of their Sims. This mod does not change gameplay, only the aesthetics, though the addition can give the overall game that little extra touch of realism.
Faster Eating And Drinking
If you are familiar with The Sims franchise, you'll know how ridiculous (and infuriating) it can be when it takes your Sims hours to finish eating or drinking, especially if there are things that need to be done. The Faster Eating and Drinking Mod does exactly as its name suggests and reduces the time it takes for Sims to complete the task of finishing a meal or having a drink.
Sims will still be able to carry on a conversation or watch television while they eat, however, their attention will be more focused on the task of eating and drinking. Not only that, but Sims will also take several bites or gulps before stopping to perform other tasks, speeding up the process.
SimDa Dating App
In the real world, many relationships today begin online. In the world of the Sims, however, your Sims will have to try to meet someone by actually going out. The SimDa Dating App mod changes that and allows Sims to find love through their phone.
With SimDa, Sims on go blind dates, search for their perfect match or enjoy a casual no-strings-attached encounter. Sims can also access SimDa on their computers or tablets to flirt and chat with other Sims online. The app also allows players to enable or disable calls from NPCs. If players leave this feature on, their Sim may receive a call from a townie for a liaison and, should your Sim agree, they will go on a rabbit hole date for a few hours.
Custom Gender Settings
The Sims series took a huge step forward in terms of gender representation in 2016 when it released a free update that added gender customization options to The Sims 4. This made it possible for players to customize whether a Sim uses the toilet while sitting or standing and if they can get pregnant or get others pregnant rather than tying those to their gender or biological sex, as well as removing the gender limitations on things like clothing, hairstyles and voices.
At the time of its launch, the update was praised by organizations like GLAAD, which EA consulted with when trying to craft the update in a respectful way. These new options provide ways to help transgender Simmers create characters that better represent themselves o. However, most of these settings were tied to Create-a-Sim, making them unaccessible to existing Sims without cheating. ColonolNutty's Custom Gender Settings mod simplifies this by adding a new menu for these options that players can open up with a simple interaction. It also adds also an option to change the genders of all Sims in the world at once.