Fear of the Dark

The Fear of the Dark is a base-game fear by Maxis, overhauled by me in The Hopes & Fears Mod (Version 1.2).

Changes Made & Fixes:

The chances of gaining a Fear of the Dark have been drastically reduced.
Instead of simply being outside at night and having a chance of triggering this fear; now your Sim will need to be scared AND outside at night before there’s a (small) chance of triggering this fear.
Once a Sim has confronted a Fear of the Dark, it will not return. Ever.
Moodlets related to a Fear of the Dark will no longer appear during the day or when the Sim no longer has the Fear.
Sims with the Night Owl reward trait will also be exempt from a Fear of the Dark.
Added a notification when the Fear has been resolved.

New Features:

Toddlers now have a chance to gain this fear.
Children and Toddlers will be likely to gain this fear after watching a scary movie. Toddlers also have a chance of gaining the fear after a nightmare.
Toddlers with a Fear of the Dark will be more likely to have a nightmare.
When a Sim gains this fear, it will generate a 24-hour cooldown buff before Sims can begin wanting to confront the Fear.
Toddlers and Children now have several new interactions to use with their parents to help with overcoming a Fear of the Dark. These are:
~ Ask About Fear of the Dark (Parent to Child, Parenthood Required, found under the Parenting category)
~ Talk About Fear of the Dark (Child to Parent, found under Friendly)
~ Talk About Happy Place (Toddler/Child to Parent, found under Friendly)
~ Talk About Scary Shapes (Toddler to Parent, found under Friendly)
Parents reading a toddler to sleep also has a chance of helping them to resolve a Fear of the Dark.

Toddlers & Children

The biggest overhaul to this fear is enabling it for toddlers as well. I felt this was a lot more realistic since this fear in real life is more common in toddlers.

I also felt that the method of resolving the fear didn’t really feel natural for children and, given that the Confident Mood is unavailable to toddlers, it wouldn’t work for them either. So I wanted new ways for the Fear to be resolved for children and toddlers.

With each interaction, the toddler/child will gain a moodlet for Coping With Fear. This comes in varying strengths, depending on how well a child is doing with coping. The more they talk to a parent of caregiver, the better they do until eventually, they resolve the fear.