I agree. It would be handy to have more detailed record keeping included in the game. And then who knows what 'bugs' the additional programming might spawn !?

I keep some kind of outside of the game record of my current households for each of The Sims series that I play. Just because I enjoy doing this and because when I've not played for a while this helps me to "get back into the swing of things."

Toddlers!!!! This will help a lot!!!!

This truly is a lovely surprise. And a bit of happy is always welcome! My game is updating right now.

Of course some players are already unhappy because this big update apparently interferes with mods and that will ruin their game.

Oh well...

EDIT: And this is a free, no cost addition with lots of cute goodies included!!!

I just created and played a new family of mom, dad, daughter, and twin boy and girls toddlers, in the fixer in the Culpepper! LOL I have just a few mods and all are fine. I am a happy camper.

The first toddler related thing I did was to build a carefully planned. single story, family home with toddlers and children in mind. I then created the Foster family (adults and one toddler) to test the home and to begin to learn about our toddlers.

If anyone is interested the home is in the Sims4 Gallery:

Kids N Toddlers (pattyheart)

Parent's room. 2 bed children's bedroom and a one bed toddler room. The home has an family style kitchen-dining room. 2 full baths and a spacious living room. (The home comes with a definite lived in look!). With safety in mind the back garden is fully fenced.

Oh, and the children's bath has an open tub with toddler bathing in mind, ( I also prefer open bath tubs for children as they are fun to see playing in the bath!)

Oh, and I turned my (very few mods) back on and have so far not seen any problems. I see a thread here where affected mods are being listed.

I'd enjoy seeing pictures of your toddlers !!

Carl now has a Toddler Guide up and running!:
http://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/p...ng/toddlers.php

Welp. I did it. The one thing I complained about never being able to do back when they said we wouldn't have toddlers. I recreated the family from Full House

teafortwo, the vitriol always bothers me too. Particularly when it's coming from people who either haven't played the game at all, or haven't played it since its initial release. (Like, why are you busy hanging around the TS4 forums when you don't even play the game?) I was incredibly disappointed in TS3 as it was essentially unplayable on a computer that far outstrips the game's minimum and recommended stats, but I didn't run around throwing angry posts around the TS3 forums - I posted where I could be helpful and had an opinion to put in, and otherwise kept playing my TS2. I suppose we're only human, though, and prone to being stuck in our ruts. I've seen some beautiful Sims 2 family stories from others (personally, I had a Pleasantview neighbourhood-wide legacy that I adored and played almost exclusively), I know many Simmers who have had wonderful Sims 3 family stories that I enjoyed despite my personal dissatisfaction with the game, and I've seen some great Sims 4 family stories.

Personally, I've enjoyed the family story aspect of TS4. I was more of a builder than a player in TS2, and while I would love to have an expanded build scenario in TS4, I'm enjoying the opportunity to actually play more. As a writer, I don't mind not having every single scenario be possible: that's what our imagination is for, right? You don't need a picture for every single event in order to say that it took place. My Sims 4 has a few different save games, because I've been experimenting with different play-style challenges: plenty of them have had "off-camera" embellishments in their stories.

I would love to see some expanded childhood and adolescence stages (preteen has been floated around the forums for a while). I have been absolutely delighted with the toddlers so far. They do add a lot more to the family experience: my poor Build Newcrest family has been run ragged between both parents working, a child, a toddler and a newborn. The parents are continually exhausted... very life-like, I imagine?

NO. I don't believe it for a second. I know enough about computers and this game + personal experience to tell you that you didn't need a very powerful PC to run TS3 back in 2009.
This was my PC at that time: Pentium Dual Core 3:00 Ghz, 2 GB DDR RAM, GeForce 6200 (AGP Slot) and 240 GB 7200 rpm HDD.
It was a very outdated gaming PC I had bought years prior, but still ran the game with no problems at medium to high settings.
So unless you had a Pentium 3 (or, God forbid, an Intel Atom) with integrated graphics, then NO. The minimum requirements were enough at that time to run the game well (2.4 GHz P4 processor, 1.5 GB RAM, 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0). It was as years went by and more and more content was added that the game started to perform poorly in some systems. And even though, most problems can be fixed very easily (getting world fixes and couple of mods to reset stuck Sims and such).

I get really touchy about this topic because I feel that someone started the ball rolling that Sims 3 runs bad (which under certain circumstances is true) and people assume that it's ALWAYS run bad AND that it's no matter of how efficient or powerful your hardware is. I admit, the game is not very well optimized and there are many annoying bugs and glitches (which could also be said about TS4), but it was definitely not unplayable in 2009 if you had a PC with the minimal requirements, and it is definitely NOW with a decent enough (mid-range) gaming PC. The problem comes when people try to use laptops not designed for gaming to play such a heavy game. It makes as much sense as trying to play Tomb Raider 2013 in one of those laptops. TS3 might not have Tomb Raider 2013's graphics, but it requires quite a lot of power due to fact it has to simulate a whole world of Sims.

I'm not starting this argument. I've already done so, years and another upgrade ago. Suffice to say that I had far more capable computer-type people than me look at my (mid-range gaming desktop) computer's stats and tell me it can handle far more taxing games than The Sims 3, even before my upgraded hardware.

Back on topic, I think I'm going to finish up my final installment of my Legacy story's pending chapters, so that I can go back into the save game and start getting this kiddo up to toddlerhood. They are going to be scrumptious!

It believe that those of us who enjoy writing and story telling find the story telling-writing aspect of the Sims series to be one of the things that has held our interest over the years. This also reminds me that for anyone it is our own imagination that can determine how we feel about or whether or not we can immerse ourselves in any game.

I (and I'm sure others as well) appreciate it when players share links to their Sim stories.

A year (or two?) ago I did a story series on YT that made use of both Sims 3 and 4.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?li...3hTb8wY7QZKeFnK

I have been replaying the Berries since then with different results. Their surname was inspired by a British wine making family. I had at first thought of giving their children wine or fruit related names This time around I've kept them in Sims4.

Being different individuals with our own personal expectations, preferences and expectations we all feel differently about each one of the games in the Sims series ( and in any game series).

Yes! Our imagination is a vital ingredient and is what gives any game spice and flavor :-)

Oh my gosh! Yes, these toddlers do bring some life-like reality into the game. I'm playing a new story telling game with an unemployed single parent with just one toddler and, oh my!, she was totally exhausted at the end of the very first day!!

I caved and played a little bit more on my Legacy house. The kid absolutely is scrumptious.

(The link is in my signature at the bottom of the post - The Woman of the Night)

EDIT TO ADD: Also, it isn't as dubious as it sounds. I only called it the Woman of the Night because Catherine works in the Criminal career track, so she works at night. I swear everything's PG.

Clubs can be useful in relation to family style game play. For example; I created a Homemaking Club with home care related activities (Cooking, Gardening, Cleaning and Being Friendly.) This club provides a small army of friends and neighbors who can be called in to help during times of illness, the arrival of a new baby or a death in the family. All the member Sim need do is to call for a home meeting. The help is easily dismissed by ending the meeting.