After a while, installing The Sims 4 mods is almost a must to keep the life game fresh. The Sims 4 and its truckload of expansions, including the upcoming Growing Together pack, give you nearly endless ways to live your ideal fantasy life or make hell on earth for some poor little Sim churning out paintings in a basement. “Nearly endless” isn’t quite the same as endless, though, and after a while, you might start getting restless with the traits, scenarios, and boundaries Maxis and EA set in the life game. You’re not alone. Other Sims fans have as well, and they’ve created an impressive range of mods, add-ons, and tweaks that bring depth and realism to the game. These are some of the best.
MC Command Center
Created by: Deaderpool
MC Command Center is sort of the ultimate Sims 4 mod. It gives you control of practically every foundational aspect in the game. One branch lets you customize every element of the Create-A-Sim maker, including limb width and length. Another governs romance, one lets you control how long a day is, and yet another gives you complete governance over pregnancy, birth, and death.
It doesn’t add anything to the game like some of our other mod picks, but you can use it with a range of other mods. Just make sure to check the compatibility before installing.
OMSP Shelf
Created by: PictureAmeobae
The OMSP Shelf from pictureamoeba is one of the most useful tools for creating realistic spaces that feel lived in. OMSP in Sims-speak is “one more slot please,” a term players use for items designed to let them add more stuff in a specific area.
A few kits, like Tiny Living, give you items to help make spaces seem naturally cluttered, but this shelf goes far beyond that and lets you add several items of different size and fine-tune the shelf’s placement to a greater degree than the base game usually lets you.
Wonderful Whims
Created by: TurboDriver
TurboDriver made Wonderful Whims to add a hefty splash of dynamism to your daily life. It gives your Sims a complex set of styles and preferences, which forms a worldview that determines their moods and who they want to interact with.
It’s similar to the enhanced likes and dislikes that Maxis is working on for the Growing Up Together expansion, but Wonderful Whims is more detailed. There’s a new set of traits, skills, and interactions, and even new objects and ways to progress through your Sims’ lives.
More CAS Traits
Created by: Chingyu1023
This one is pretty self-explanatory. More CAS Traits lets you add, well, more traits in the Create-A-Sim section, which means more fine-tuned customization options and ways to help your Sim express themselves. You can make them a hobbyist who finds stress relief and fun when spending time with their hobby, fine-tune their sense of good and evil, or send them on a quest for zen. Whatever modded traits you find on Mod The Sims – or make yourself – you can add in the game thanks to this one.
Live In Business
Created by: LittleMsSam
If you want a career without leaving the house, you’re in luck. Live In Business lets you run a range of stores and even clubs from the comfort of your home by adding business Lot Traits to your house lot. Your customers and clients spawn from the pool of nearby NPCs, and you can set up a cafe, bar, gym, club, daycare, retail shop, or even a vet clinic.
The Explore Mod
Created by: KawaiiStacie
It’s surprising EA and Maxis haven’t added something like The Explore Mod yet, as it’s one of the most natural-seeming Sims 4 mod out there. If your Sim has a buss pass or driver’s license, you can send them off to explore. What they do depends on their traits and inclinations, but they may go shopping and come back with new outfits, hang out with friends, or travel somewhere new. You can send them to explore with a friend or two as well and boost their relationships.
Playable Pets
Created by: Brujah
One of the common complaints after the Cats and Dogs expansion released was that you can’t control your pet. Now you can. Brujah’s mod brought back some of The Sims 3’s pet features and lets you play as your pet, manage their moods and needs, and interact with the environment around you.
Have Some Personality Please!
Created by: PolarBearSims
This is a massive mod that overhauls how Sims interact with each other. One of the more notable changes includes locking amorous interactions behind higher levels of romance, so you can’t rush into proclaiming love and making out just five minutes after meeting your new romantic interest.
It also changes how Sims interact with each other when you’re not controlling them. Idle conversations force Sims to pick an option based on their traits and interests, so the interactions feel more natural as a result. They may even pick up new traits and even career proficiency from these chats.
Meaningful Stories
Created by: Roburky
Meaningful Stories combined prolific Sims modder roburky’s two most popular works – Emotional Intertia and True Happiness – into one package with a handful of other improvements.
The goal is giving your Sims emotions that are truer to real life, such as inspiration that overrides all other thoughts until you give it room to grow or depression that takes more than just a warm fire and nice painting to cure. Managing your Sims’ moods is more difficult as a result, but it makes their lives, sadnesses, and triumphs feel more, well, meaningful as a result.
Better Build/Buy
Created by: TwistedMexi
This Sims 4 mod is for the builders and has a few major features. One is that it lets you see the debug items normally hidden behind a cheat without having to use the cheat – items such as trees, rocks, and collectibles that you can’t access otherwise. It increases the number of rows in create mode, so you can skim the catalogue much more easily, and it overhauls the search filters so they actually work properly. Even if you aren’t a Sims builder, it makes just buying new furniture much less of a hassle.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
