I’m a big fan of having hobbies for each of my sims. Since there’s no official hobby system in Sims 4, I’ve created my own using the skills and activities already present in the game, either from the base game, a pack or a mod. I’ve then split these activities into 11 different categories, 10 of which were taken from Sims 2: Freetime.
Arts & Crafts
- Canning
- Cross-Stitching
- Fabrication
- Flower Arranging
- Knitting
- Painting
- Photography
- Pottery
- Woodwork
Cuisine
- Baking
- Canning
- Cooking
- Gourmet Cooking
- Juice Fizzing
- Mixology
- Nectar Making
Film & Literature
- Acting
- Research & Debate
- Writing
Fitness
- Boxing
- Cycling
- Diving
- Fitness
- Martial Arts
- Rock Climbing
- Running
- Swimming
- Wellness
- Yoga
Games
- Board Games
- Bowling
- Cards
- Chess
- Video Games
Learning & Discovery
- Archaeology
- Medium
- Research & Debate
- Selvadoradian Culture
- Vampire Lore
Music & Dance
- Dance
- DJ
- Drums
- Guitar
- Media Production
- Piano
- Pip Organ
- Singing
- Violin
Nature
- Flower Arranging
- Gardening
- Herbalism
- Hiking
Science
- Astronomy
- Chemistry
- Logic
- Robotics
- Rocket Science
Sports
Tinkering
- Handiness
- Programming
- Robotics
*Interests*
*Mods I Use*
- Chemistry System ~ This mod introduces a chemistry system that, not only helps to dictate how a Sim’s romantic relationship might go but helps dictate how a friendship will build, based on a score of skills and traits.
- First Impressions ~ Introduces new sentiments when your sims meet for the first time, which can help to sway how conversations go, based on that very first impression!
- The Hobby Mod ~ This is my own mod but it includes 14 hobby traits based on the Sims 2 hobby system. This mod adds hobby-based whims to your sims and is gradually expanding to create a full-blown hobby system.
One thing I adored with The Sims and The Sims 2 was the Interests. I loved the way they dictated how the conversations would go, depending on the interests of the participating Sims. It was wonderful to see, so I’m attempting this in Sims 4.
As we don’t have interests in Sims 4, the closest I’ve found so far has been the Chemistry mod. I find this is a nice mod that brings in a chemistry system but also changes how easy conversations go; just like interests!
So, to expand on that, I’m gradually go around all my Sims and changing their chemistry preferences; basing them loosely on their own hobbies, so they’ll get conversational boosts with like-minded sims.
The First Impressions mod allows for some difficulties when it comes to conversing with other sims. These two mods combined can almost give the same effect as the interests from Sims 2. Not bad!
Skills, Talents & Weaknesses, Oh My!
*Mods I Use*
- Talents & Weaknesses ~ This mod by Lumpinou is a newfound favourite of mine. It adds traits to the Sims to dictate how easy or hard Sims find certain skills. For example, I have given Rebecca the Acting Weakness because I think we all know what a terrible actress she actually is! So to me it makes sense that she has a hard time learning this particular skill and it will gain slower.
- Give Me Some Talent ~ This is fairly new and I haven’t *yet* got around to using it but it operates on a similar principle to Lumpinou’s mod above. This mod will add these weaknesses and talents based on existing, previous life stage skills. This means that how the Sim grows up can and will determine what sort of skills they’ll excel at later in life!
The Daily Plumbob 