The Sims 4: Enchanted by Naturewas released on July 10, and players have encountered an unexpected issue that has upended a challenge that’s been popular since the earliest days ofThe Sims 1. TheSims 4’s rags-to-riches challengegives players the chance to create stories, overcome hardship, and create a legacy that brings real feelings of accomplishment. The challenge entails creating a custom Sim, living on an empty lot, and setting their household funds to 0. From there, the Sim needs to survive and slowly build their funds over several generations.
New ways to live off the land are some of the appealing features ofThe Sims 4: Enchanted by Nature. Actions designed around surviving in nature seem to be the perfect complement to the rags-to-riches challenge. Unfortunately, the skill that is linked to these actions, Natural Living, inadvertently removes much of what makes the rags-to-riches challenge appealing, making it far too easy.
The Challenge of Rags-to-Riches
The challenge in rags-to-riches is about surviving and building something great from nothing. Finding creative solutions to problems like fulfilling needs and earning money is part of the challenge’s appeal. Expansion packs likeThe Sims 4: Eco LifestyleandThe Sims 4: Cottage Livinggo a long way to facilitate this challenge, withCottage Living’s Simple Living lot challenge, which restricts the Sim to needing to produce all their own food, andEco Lifestyle’s dumpster diving, recycling, and manufacturing features.
These features gave the rags-to-riches challenge more depth and nuance, rather than shortcuts. Dumpster diving came with the caveat that what the Sim found was purely up to chance and tanked the Sim’s hygiene, while the Simple Living lot challenge added another barrier on the Sim’s path to thriving.
Enchanted by Natureappeared to be an expansion pack that would make the rags-to-riches challenge better in many ways, thanks to some added actions and the Natural Living skill. Sims can now sleep on the floor, forage for food in the wilderness, and bathe in bodies of water.
Enchanted by Nature Removes All Difficulty from Rags-to-Riches
Unfortunately, there appears to be an issue of balance with the Natural Living skill, as it essentially removes all challenge from living off the land, to the point that Sims may as well be living in a fully-furnished house with household funds. The Natural Living skill can be increased while sleeping on the ground. While at just level 2 of the skill, Sims can instantly summon a Privy Bush to satisfy their bladder need wherever and whenever they like. At higher skill levels, raw fish and foraged frogs increase needs faster, making normal gameplay easier than ever without any drawbacks.
Anotherissue thatEnchanted by Naturebringsis the new ailments. Certain ailments can cause Sims to sneeze Simoleons, with some Simmers sneezing millions of Simoleons in just days. Ailments cannot be turned off inThe Sims 4’s options, and so players who are attempting a rags-to-riches need to avoid the ailments that produce copious amounts of money.
While these perks seem great in theory and appear to be designed to support the rags-to-riches challenge, they remove many of the features that made the challenge fun. Rather than enhancing the rags-to-riches challenge, it gives shortcuts.
Rags-to-riches is one of the most popular ways to playbecause of the feeling of accomplishment in overcoming hardship. With all hardship stripped fromThe Sims 4, any sense of achievement is also stripped away, making rags-to-riches pointless. Living outdoors with a high Natural Living skill is essentially the same as living in a fully-furnished mansion.
While the two playstyles appear different on the surface, they are functionally exactly the same. Doing this to rags-to-riches is a sad moment, and players who boughtEnchanted by Naturewill now need to take additional measures to avoid the shortcuts that the expansion pack has given them.
