How do I add realism to my game?
The Sims 4 is a rich virtual world with its own set of rules where you can live out all your deepest (and darkest) fantasies, as well as all those random storylines that are just floating around in your head. Sometimes, though, it does feel like those fantasies would be more fulfilling if the game were just a tad more realistic.
These mods will take your virtual life to the next level by making it feel much closer to the real thing.
10. Buy Groceries and Fish
Buy Groceries and Fish mod overview
Sims can grow their own food and catch their own fish – but wouldn’t it be nice to just go to the grocery store? This mod lets you add a retail lot that sells groceries so your sim can go to the store instead of living off the land.
- Adds two new registers, one for fish and one for produce, that can be placed on any retail lot.
- Access all fish and produce whenever you need them, aside from rare items (such as cowplant berries).
- Includes new chicken and cheese ingredients.
Get the mod here.
9. Visit Hospital
Visit Hospital mod overview
Unless you worship at the shrine of Gwenyth Paltrow, it’s not very realistic that when your sim gets sick you can just buy a cure-all off the internet. Now you can take your sim to the doctor and get real diagnosis and treatment.
- Visit the doctor to get your ailments cured – they even provide childcare!
- Bring along visitors to help keep your sim calm and feeling supported.
- Pay hospital fees based on medication, family size, and situational care.
Get the mod here.
8. Balanced Death Moodlets
Must Have Mods list, discussion segment on Balanced Death Moodlets
Whether it’s your beloved sibling or your neighbor’s cousin, sims typically mourn all deaths the same way regardless of how close they were to the dearly departed. In addition to being unrealistic, this is highly annoying when your sim ends up spending two days miserable over the death of someone they never met. This mod is the perfect fix. (Since this is a small mod, it’s showcased as part of a larger video. Video set to start at 12:31.)
- Moodlets are tied to the strength and nature of your sim’s relationship with the deceased.
- If a disliked sim dies, your sim will receive a happy moodlet (though you might want to try not to appear too gleeful).
- Sims will generally have a stronger reaction if they witness a death.
Get the mod here.
7. SimDa Dating App
SimDa Dating App Mod overview
Relationships are more complicated than running into your future beau at the gym and complimenting their outfit until you fall in love. SimDa adds a little more modern nuance to your dating game by adding options for online dating, blind dates, and casual hookups.
- Choose a specific sim who you want to go on a date with and see if the sparks fly.
- Get set up on a blind date and let fate decide your romantic future.
- Feeling frisky? Skip all the small talk and invite someone over for a one-night stand.
Get the mod here.
6. Social Activities
Social Activities mod overview
Let your sims have a social life without having to control everything they do! This mod allows your sim to go on autonomous social outings like concerts, hiking trips, and book clubs. While they’re gone your sims will be working on their skills – and may even come back with some extra items or simoleons.
- Enter the cooking competition for a chance to win a cash prize.
- Send other household members away to give your sim a peaceful evening home alone.
- Add social activities as holiday traditions to bring some extra excitement to your seasonal calendar.
Get the mod here.
5. Explore
Explore mod overview
This mod builds off the same concept as the Social Activities Mod, but your sim can do activities with much bigger in-game implications. You can gamble and make (or lose) big money, go shopping and come back with new outfits, see a therapist to remove your negative mood buffs, and much more.
- Take classes in skills you’d like to increase.
- Modify your sim’s body by getting surgery or hiring a personal trainer (use with the food=calories mod for extra realism).
- Go on one-day vacations to places like the beach or Disney World.
Get the mod here.
4. ATM Cards with Credit Function
ATM Machine mod overview
The “motherlode” cheat in The Sims 4 is a great way to make fast cash, but if you’re going for realistic gameplay you probably want to avoid the lure of shortcuts. Instead, this mod allows your sim to apply for credit at any of the new included ATMs, so your sim’s finances no longer need to hold them back. And what’s more realistic for the modern Millennial than a nice big pile of loans?
- Take out loans of anywhere from §2,500- §50,000 so your sim can buy that new grill or remodel the kitchen.
- Make daily payments towards your loan balance, with 10% interest.
- When everything is paid off your sim can happily tear up their loan agreement – or go get another loan.
Get the mod here.
3. Meaningful Stories
Meaningful Stories mod overview
Sims often flip through emotions in a way that doesn’t make a ton of sense. The Meaningful Stories mod gives your sims a much more subtle and logical emotion system, making their emotions more in tune with the things that actually happen to them.
- Moods are less predictable and more difficult to manipulate, requiring more work to achieve a desired mood state.
- Sims are less likely to die from emotions like hysterical laughter.
- Settings are customizable to your ideal level of emotional stability.
Get the mod here.
2. Life Decider
Life Decider mod overview
The story mode in create-a-sim offered us the ability to generate a background story for a new sim and let them start their sim-life a few levels ahead. This mod is inspired by the story feature, but it makes it way better. You can use this to give backgrounds to any sim, no matter when they were created.
- Sims will get a career, skill boosts, extra cash, and a bonus trait (chosen from the 15 new bonus traits that come with this mod).
- Great way to give your sims some extra individuality.
- It can also be used on NPCs! Give your townies some background to make them more diverse and interesting.
Get the mod here.
1. Slice of Life
Slice of Life mod overview
If you were only going to choose one mod for realistic gameplay, this would be it. This mod adds so much to the game – new emotions, physical reactions, a memory system, menstruation, acne, drunkenness, contagious illness, talents, turn-ons and turnoffs, and more. This is the mod to make your sims really come to life.
- Includes a complete overhaul to the phone system, adding apps that your sims can use to gain skills, social media features, and different options depending on relationships and mood.
- Sims will have appearance changes such as teary eyes when they’re sad and blushing cheeks when they’re feeling flirty, so you can see the physical changes your sim’s moods bring on.
- Learn your sim’s preferences – they’ll bond quickly with sims that have their ‘turn on’ traits and be more distant with sims that have their ‘turn-offs’.
Get the mod here.
Hopefully, these mods will add an element of realism to your game to make your sims’ lives as rich, complicated, and varied as your own. Because, and let’s be honest, inflicting all your real-life drama and struggles onto a set of virtual characters is much cheaper than therapy.
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