Disabling Seasions But Keeping its Stuff - Want to disable weather or make plants in season year-round? You can do so with my new Seasons Tuner Mod
Improving Sims 4: The past month, I've spent every day tinkering The Sims 4, making quality of life improvements, gameplay changes, and new difficulty settings for the game. If you'd like to learn more about my project, visit the post on Patreon where you can download it now.
Making a Sim is the very first thing you do in the Sims 4, so a tutorial explaining the Create-a-Sim interface should help a few new players. Here are the things you need to know in order to customize your Sim, save them to the library and gallery, and how things like Apirations and Traits will impact your Sim. Throughout the guide I'll sprinkle in some FAQs that players ask, like what happens when you play as a child and how to change a Sim's clothes and outfits once in the game.
Making a new game means no Sims either you or your family and friends have created will live in that world. This is a fresh start.
Each household you create can either be in the last played world, or an entirely new one. Each save file is tied to a world and the various neighborhoods you own, which you can freely move between. You can switch households at any time, or play one of the townie households in one of the neighborhoods. For this tutorial, I recommend you pick 'Make a New Game' in the top right corner of the main menu, as the process is different if you jump into a world that is already populated with Sims.
Click to Enlarge. This image shows the various areas of the Create-a-Sim interface. When you click the Sim or traits area, extra menus will appear. This image explores the basics and shows you how to do several things to customize or save your Sim.
A Sim's gender is set using the top-left menu. Clicking ... will let you further customize the Sim, their tastes, and sexuality. Otherwise you only need the male/female icons.
When you first start up Create-a-Sim (CAS), you will be given a random Sim. You may need to change the gender depending what type of Sim you plan to play. Also in that corner, you can click to make your Sim an Adult (think middle aged) or Elder. Sims by default start as young adults, which gives you time to develop skills and careers before they grow old. This is the best choice for newcomers.
Can I Play as a Child or Teen?
You cannot play as a child. They require a guardian. So long as you also make an adult, you could control the child primarily and let the adult use free will to take care of themselves. If that adult died before the child became a teen, it's game over. You can absolutely start a game as a teenager and play normally, you just won't have access to adult careers and will have High School. It doesn't mean you can't make money with a part time job or skill!
While you can invite Sims to move in, or even get married, you can also start with more than one Sim when you make a new game. In the bottom left corner you can click 'Add to Family' on the little plus icon next to the picture of your Sim. The new Sim can be made to be genetically similar (son/daughter) or entirely different. With Get to Work, it could even be an Alien. Clicking on a Sim you added gives you the opportunity to remove them, as well.
Click your Sim in CAS. The sliders to the left of your Sim let you change body fat and muscle mass. These have no impact on gameplay, but serve to allow further customization of a Sim's appearance.
Once you're sure which gender and age you want, you can start tweaking your Sim's body and clothes. The body is fairly easy, but has the ability to be incredibly powerful thanks to the tools we are given. If you click on your Sim's arms and drag, you can make his or her bicep bigger. Same with most every body part - want a poofy chest? Both genders can have an enlarged busom, so you can fine-tune breasts or pecs to suit your fancy.
Changing facial features is easy. You can always use the pre-made parts to the right, or else tweak that body part yourself.
While the body is very easy to change with the weight and muscle sliders, the face is a bit more involved. You can click the Sim's nose, ears, cheeks, lips, and eyes and get submenus full of choices. it's also possible to pick one you like, and if it is off by just a little bit, click detail edit mode to the left of the Sim. Now you can rotate, drag, and resize the Sim's facial features. This is how players make, for example, Donald Trump or Jean Luc Picard look-alikes using Create-a-Sim.
Changing clothes is rather easy. See below for changing colors, changing outfits while in-game, and how to remove items you don't want your Sim to wear.
Click any part of your Sim's clothing, and you will get a menu that lets you select clothes via various clothing type menus next to your Sim. Also, clicking that article of clothing on the Sim will bring up the same menu. This is one of the most obvious parts of making a Sim. Filters are available by clicking the arrow at the top left of the clothing menu, which lets you sort by DLC, as well as clothing types.
There are five outfit categories at the top of this menu. You should set your Sim's clothes for all the categories, so they are dressed to your liking when going to a wedding or swimming in a pool. Pre-made outfits are available to speed up this process, simply click the 'full body' button in the middle of the list while the Sim clothes menu is up.
The Sims Studio didn't give us create-a-pattern, but we can indeed select different colors for clothing.
With a piece of clothing selected, look on the button for that item to access the small rectangular color menu. Several colors are usually presented, and sometimes a dozen different options are available. Remember this feature, because you can do the same thing with furniture and decorations in the home - this lets you build rooms that match and look how you want!
Accessories like earrings, bracelets, and eye glasses can be removed by either picking another accessory of the same type, or else hovering the mouse over the equipped accessory and clicking the red 'x'. You can also hover over the 'accessories' category itself to remove all accessories at once!
Clicking your Sim gives you a menu where you can select to instantly change into any outfit you've already created and view them by category. In order to make entirely new outfits, use the 'change appearance' option which appears when you click a dresser, wardrobe of any kind, or a mirror (even a small bathroom mirror will do). As an extra tip, you can add outfits to your Sim for later use by clicking the up arrow on the category (such as Everyday or Formal), then clicking the plus sign. You can now switch between outfit #1, 2, and so on in that category. Now when you select change outfit by picking your Sim, you won't only see 1 outfit for each category. You can access all the outfits you have made at any time.
What is an Aspiration? An Aspiration is your Sim's long-term goal. You may finish one Aspiration's objectives only to move on to another, or switch without finishing. Sims can change their priorities just like real people.
Before you can leave Create-a-Sim, you must pick an Aspiration and three Traits. Aspirations are long-term goals, the ultimate thing that Sim would like to accomplish. Aspirations can be changed at any time, Sims can change their minds and goals after all! Aspirations come with bonus traits that give you a boost toward achieving them, and this trait is locked in when you pick the aspiration. It appears above the aspiration icon in Create-a-Sim in the smaller trait slot.
Experienced players would tell you not to worry about the Aspiration during the selection process, but rather focus on getting a bonus trait that you like. Its effect can be seen after the Aspiration is picked for the Sim. Just hover over the icon. Each category of aspiration has 1 unique bonus trait, tied to that category. As soon as you enter the game, you can swap to an aspiration that you like more. Aspirations have reward traits for completing them, and award lots of satisfaction points.
A Trait defines your Sim's personality. You can pick up to three, all of which have unique features that effect a Sim's mood and certain bonuses/penalties.
Traits are set in stone once you leave CAS unless you use testing cheats. While in CAS for the first time you can remove traits by hovering over them and picking the 'x'. Traits determine your Sim's personality, which is primarily driven by emotion. For example Genius Sims may randomly find themselves focused, which gives boosts to skills like programming. Loners may get embarrased more often when a social interaction fails. Some have no downsides, like Genius or Creative. Loner has a downside, but its upside is that Loners are generally happy when no other Sims are around. Read the descriptions carefully and pick three traits that you like.
If you may want to save your Sim for the future, or upload it to the online gallery, use the Save Household button in the top right corner.
At the top right, you can select Save Household to save. Using the checkmark will take you on to pick where that Sim will live and get you started playing The Sims 4. However, when you pick Save Household you can use one of the Sims 4's better features. After entering a description, you can save to your own personal library or click the little cloud in the lower left corner of the save screen to make it live on the Gallery. The Gallery is where other players share their creations. You can pick Sims from your library while in CAS or Edit World mode and either use them in your active game or make them neighbors in your world.
When you've made your Sim and want to move in, you may not find a home you like. Use This guide to picking a better lot from the gallery.
How You Can Support The Site and Channel
If you like my sites and Youtube Channel, consider supporting me on Patreon to help me to continue. 
We now have a Youtube Channel with over 50 guides in video format to go along with the huge site I've already created. Check it out and consider subscribing if you like my style.
The Sims 4 Seasons expansion now has options! Want to disable weather or make plants in season year-round? You can do so with my new Seasons Tuner Mod
The past month, I've spent every day tinkering The Sims 4, making quality of life improvements, gameplay changes, and new difficulty settings for the game. If you'd like to learn more about my project, visit the post on Patreon where you can download it now.
Cottage Living Guide! Here is my guide to new features in the Sims 4 Cottage Living Expansion
You can also find handy Cottage Living Cheats
I have much more to come, since you can actually write a few guides about this pack!
Blender has been incredibly useful in video production, so I made my own Physics and Simulation Improvement Addon that lumps a ton of unique tools into one compact interface.
Snowy Escape Cheats
Lifestyles in Snowy Escape
Climb Mt. Komorebi
Sentiments in Snowy Escape
Rock Climbing
Skiing Skill
Snowboarding Skill
I've released a guide to Sentiments in The Sims 4 & Snowy Escape.
There is a new platform tool in The Sims 4. There's also a new Sentiments system, but it'll take some time to create a guide to that. Players can also use rental lots in any world now by changing lot types of builds in manage worlds.
I've created a massive List of The Best Mods in The Sims 4 that should be very helpful to new players and those who have not yet explored modding and how much it can do for your gameplay.
New - Secrets I have a new guide to secrets in the game. If you prefer, you can also watch a video about secrets in Sims 4.
Nifty Knitting is now available. Learn all about the stuff pack on my guide page here.
NEW - Nifty Knitting CheatsNew features in the Sims 4 June 2020
The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle Guide
Eco Footprint: How it Works
Neighborhood Action Plans
How to Cheat in Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle
Civil Designer Career
Insect Farms & Bio Fuel
Fabrication Skill in Eco Lifestyle
Juice Fizzing NEW
Traits and Aspirations in DLC
Gameplay Ideas for Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle
Updated
Trait Cheats Updated
Traits List Updated
Aspirations List Updated
Readers who use adblock or those who'd like to thank me for my efforts can now pledge $1/$5 monthly via Patreon. This helps a lot with server costs and provides some stability for my business.
This is inspired by a new series in which I start at toddler and gradually take on the major bonuses. Here's a link to the full playlist!
I now have a guide page to Tiny Living Stuff where you can learn about Murphy Beds, the new death, as well as the lot bonuses you'll receive if you manage to keep the size of your lot down with this new pack's Tiny Home Lot Type.
New I now have a guide to Making Super Sims in The Sims 4. Look for a text version within the next 72h. It won't have THAT much more info but it will help out as a checklist.
This was inspired by a series, "Let's Play a Super Sim" in which I start at toddler and gradually take on the major bonuses. Here's a link to each part for people who are interested. You can also see the Let's Play as a Playlist on Youtube.
The Sims 4 Discover University has been announced for November 15 for PC/Mac and December 17 for Xbox and Playstation 4 consoles. Click to learn more about the pack, see my summary of the livestream or read our FAQs below.
Other Guides to Discover University:
New Lot Traits: Study Spot and University Student Hang Out
New: Discover University FAQ: Gameplay Features
New Video The Sims 4 Discover University Gameplay Tips Video
More videos coming soon!
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Comments (12)
With cheats enable testingcheats on followed by cas.fulleditmode
Cheats Guide
I could only change Detail edit mode which has a glitched icon and the body weight.
Also, there was a blue square next to my mouse pointer. I tried clearing out my Clothes folder by deleting all of my clothing CC. (I only bought clothes, not hair, shoes, accessories etc.) then I downloaded a cc folder (Which took almost 2 hours
Tip for Playing RotationallyMore Tips
I don’t know what is wrong with my sims 4 but none of the buttons are there( such as the create a new game button in the top right corner of the main menu)
Well, without any information I can only guess but quit your game, remove all mods and cc and then delete the localthumbcache.package file from your TheSims 4 folder. Then start the game up. If it is working correctly then you'll know a broken mod or cc item is causing issues. Remember to NOT save your game with mods and cc removed, rather quit without saving. So check that you have the latest version of each mod and that they have been updated for the game version you are playing on, which should be 1.56.52.1020 and that the cc is also still current. Although cc is far less likely to cause issues, it is still worth checking through it regularly.
We have various guides on how to manage and problem solve cc here (click)
If you aren't using mods I would need much more information to even hazard a guess but have a look through our tech section. There are many tips and walk-thrus to help you solve issues. The Sims 4 Technical Help Board
Is there any way to remove the vampire trait in create a sim?
No
Hi, is there a way we can save a premodern face or sim in the CAS like we did in sims 3? I also spend so much time on faces and generally like to keep reusing some of my previous ones. Thanks.
Yes, the guide above tells you how to save a sim to your library. then after that you can just use that sim as your 'template' sim and remake parts of it to create 'new' sims. There is no way to just save a sims face though, it has to be a complete sim.