Volleyball Mod: Group Matches!

Hey everyone! I hope you're all doing well 💛

I’m super excited to finally share the expansion of my Volleyball Mod for The Sims 4. This update has been planned for a long time, and with it, your Sims can finally go beyond the original 1v1 matches and enjoy proper four-Sim volleyball games, with two Sims playing together on each team.

This is easily one of the biggest expansions I’ve made for a mod, not only because of the new four Sim interaction gameplay system, but also because of the animations. I really wanted these matches to feel active and energetic, with Sims running around, jumping, falling, helping each other, celebrating together, and actually moving like a team instead of just standing around the net.

The animations ended up being some of the hardest I’ve made so far. Volleyball involves a lot more movement than most of my usual animations, and now I had four Sims that needed to move and stay coordinated at the same time. Footwork was especially difficult, and I ended up reworking some animations three or four times just to get the movement to feel right. It took a lot of work, but I genuinely think these are some of my best animations so far, and I'm really happy with how dynamic the matches turned out.

The system behind all of this was another challenge on its own. I've actually been trying to create a proper four-Sim synchronized interaction for around two or three years, across different projects, but I could never get it working properly. Having four Sims around the same activity isn't necessarily difficult, but having all four of them synchronized, reacting to each other and depending on each other throughout one continuous interaction is a completely different thing.

As far as I know, something like this hasn't really been done before, even in the game itself, so there wasn't much I could build from. I had to slowly figure it out myself, and progress at times was incredibly slow.

The last few months especially became pretty intense. Eventually I had to lock in and give this project most of my attention, which is also why support and updates for some of my other mods have been lacking recently. It took a much bigger physical and mental toll on me than I expected, but after working on this idea little by little for years, I finally got it working.

But now that the system is finally there, it opens the door for a lot of things I wanted to do before but simply couldn't. I’ve already read some of your suggestions, like the Bottle Game, and ideas like four-Sim Twister are now possible too. It also gives me a much better base for other sports I’ve wanted to try, like Tennis, and probably a lot of other group activities I haven't even thought of yet.

How to Play: Getting Started

To start playing Volleyball, you'll first need to buy the new Volleyball Net from Build/Buy Mode. Just search for "Volleyball Net" and place it on your lot.

The Net is the only object required to play, so you don't need to build an entire Volleyball court around it.

⚠️ Important Note

While the footprint of the Net itself is fairly small, the actual game takes up quite a lot of space.

I tried to make the animations much more dynamic and energetic this time. Sims aren't just standing beside the Net and hitting the ball back and forth. They run around, jump, move toward each other, fall, celebrate, and reposition themselves throughout the match.

I wanted to keep the animations realistic enough to capture some of the energy of actually playing Volleyball, and naturally that means the Sims need room to move.

So make sure you leave a good amount of open space around the Net.

You can also buy the optional Volleyball Court Mat and place the Net over it.

You do not need the Court Mat to play. It is mainly there if you want the area to actually look like a Volleyball court, but it will also give you a much better idea of how much space the animations can occupy.

If you're unsure whether you've left enough room, use the Court Mat as a visual guide.

◆ Volleyball Interactions

To start a Volleyball game, simply click on the Volleyball Net.

For this update, I wanted to focus completely on the new group system, so there is no one-on-one yet, but it will be added soon,

You'll find three new group interactions on the Net:

Just to clear this up before going through them: all three interactions are four-Sim matches. It is always two Sims against two Sims. What changes between the interactions is the relationship between those Sims and the type of match you want them to have.

The matches are loosely based on beach volleyball, but they don't follow every official rule. I changed and simplified some rules to better fit the structure of the mod and how the animations work, including things like which team starts the next play after a point is scored. This also gives me more freedom with the animations instead of limiting every play to strict real-life rules.

◆ Play Team Volleyball

This is your normal friendly group match.

Choose one Sim to be your teammate and play together against two other Sims. It's the simplest option if you just want four friends, family members, roommates, or any other group of Sims to have a Volleyball match together.

There are no romantic requirements here. Pick your teams and play.

◆ Play Couple Volleyball Against Couple

This is the full romantic variation and is basically the double-date version of Volleyball.

Your Sim plays alongside their romantic partner against another couple, and because both teams are couples, I was able to add romantic moments for both sides throughout the match.

If you've taken two couples somewhere together or you're setting up a double date, this is the interaction made for that.

The basic requirement is simply having at least 10 in romance relationship with the other Sim, but the animations themselves use a more dynamic relationship system.

The mod checks how much Romance the couple has and whether they have had their First Kiss. As their relationship progresses, more romantic animations become available. This means a newer couple won't necessarily behave the same way as two Sims who are already very close.

The highest Romance check is 60 Romance, which allows the couple to access all of the available romantic animations, including the more intimate moments such as kissing, and more intimate animations,

So you don't need 60 Romance to use the interaction. It simply determines how far the romantic animation pool can go.

◆ Play Couple Volleyball Against Team

This works similarly to Couple vs Couple, except only your Sim and their teammate are treated as the couple.

The opposing team doesn't need any romantic relationship with each other.

If Couple vs Couple is the double-date option, this is the mode for when you simply want your Sim to play alongside their partner against two other Sims.

The same dynamic Romance system is used here. The closer your Sim is to their partner, the more romantic animations they can potentially perform during the match.

Scoring & Match Outcomes

To win a Volleyball match, a team needs to score 4 points before the opposing team.

With this update, matches played using the Volleyball Net will also take your Sims' Fitness Skill into account when deciding who is more likely to score. Playing casually with the ball without the Net will remain a casual activity, so Fitness won't matter there.

Having a higher Fitness Skill doesn't guarantee a win. It increases your Sim's chances, but there is still some randomness involved, meaning a less-skilled Sim can get lucky and beat a much fitter opponent.

I didn't want Fitness to completely decide every match and make the outcome predictable, but most of the time, the Sim with the higher Fitness Skill will have the advantage and is more likely to win.

⚠️ Important Note About Fitness

Because of how complicated the four-Sim synchronization is, the Fitness comparison has one limitation that I want to make clear.

On your team, the game checks the Fitness Skill of the active Sim who started the Volleyball interaction.

It also does not check their teammate.

So, for example, if your active Sim has Fitness Level 2 and their partner has Fitness Level 10, starting the match with the Level 2 Sim means Level 2 is what the game will use.

If you want that Level 10 Fitness Skill to represent your team, switch to that Sim first and use them to click the Net and start the match.

The opposing team works differently. The game can check both opposing Sims and use the appropriate Fitness value from that side, so you don't need to worry about which opponent is selected first.

I know this isn't the most perfect way to handle it, but this is already a very complicated interaction. Every additional check or change to a four-Sim synchronized system can mean duplicating and adjusting several pieces of tuning, with more opportunities for something else to break. I preferred keeping this part reliable rather than making an already complicated system even heavier.

Keeping Track of the Score:

You can follow the score through your Sims' active moodlets.

Whenever a team scores, the scoring Sim receives a moodlet showing their current score. This makes it easy to check how the match is going without adding a separate scoreboard notification to the screen.

Play Competitively:

I also added an optional setting for players who don't always want Fitness Skill affecting the result.

This can be found as a debug interaction on the Volleyball Net:

• When enabled, Fitness Skill influences your Sim's chances of winning.

• When disabled, the match becomes random and Fitness Skill is ignored.

Play Competitively is enabled by default, so unless you change anything, your Sims will automatically play with Fitness influencing their chances.

If you would rather have a completely unpredictable match, especially when there is a big difference in Fitness between the Sims, you can disable Play Competitively. With it disabled, Fitness will no longer influence the outcome and both sides will have a random chance of winning.

To access the option, enable testingcheats true, then hold Shift and click on the Volleyball Net. You will find Play Competitively among the debug interactions.

I originally considered putting this option directly on Sims, but I didn't want to add more clutter to their debug interaction menu.

Just like the Fitness check itself, this setting should be changed using the active Sim who will start the match. The mod checks the setting of the Sim who initiates the game, so you don't need to enable or disable it separately for their teammate or the opposing Sims.

Match Outcomes:

Every Volleyball interaction can end in a win or loss, and Sims will react to the result with their own moodlets. Unlike the original 1v1 version, these matches are a little more competitive, so not every outcome is positive. Losing can actually leave your Sim frustrated or sad this time.

Each of the three game modes has its own set of outcome moodlets, with stronger variations for both positive and negative results.

◆ Play Team Volleyball

Team Volleyball focuses on the match itself: playing together, competing, winning as a team or dealing with a loss.

Both winners and losers can receive different moodlets depending on the outcome, including stronger variations.

◆ Play Couple Volleyball Against Team

Couple vs Team has its own win and loss moodlets.

Winning alongside your partner can also give your Sim an additional romantic moodlet at 30+ Romance. At 60+ Romance, stronger variants become available, but they are still chance-based. They could appear on the first win or take a few more matches to show up.

These moodlets focus more on the chemistry and attraction between your Sim and their partner.

◆ Play Couple Volleyball Against Couple

Couple vs Couple also has its own win and loss moodlets.

Winning alongside your partner can also trigger romantic moodlets at 30+ Romance, with stronger variants joining the possible outcomes at 60+ Romance. Having 60+ Romance doesn't guarantee them; it simply gives them a chance to appear.

These are more focused on flirting, showing off for your partner, and having another couple there to witness it.

Important Note: Four-Sim Matches

The new four-Sim matches use a custom interaction system I created specifically to make four Sims play together in one continuous game. This is much more complicated for The Sims 4 to handle than a regular interaction, so while I've worked to make everything run as smoothly as possible, occasional bugs can still happen.

With four Sims involved, it can sometimes be difficult to tell which one is causing the problem. One Sim might take too long to start, randomly stop playing, keep part of the Volleyball interaction in their queue, or continue an animation after the others have already stopped.

To help with this, I've added a new debug interaction called Reset Volleyball Participants.

• Enable testingcheats true.

• Shift + Click the Volleyball Net and select Reset Volleyball Participants.

• Select all four Sims who were part of the match from the picker.

This will reset the selected Sims and clear any leftover Volleyball interactions, making sure nothing from the previous match is interfering with the next one. You can then simply start the match again.

If all four Sims are standing around for too long and the match clearly isn't starting, reset the participants and try again.

◆ Thank you!

I also want to thank you all for your patience and support while I worked on this update.

I'm an animator and a creative creator first, not really a coder, and coding has always been one of the harder parts of modding for me. But learning enough of it has allowed me to push my animations much further and create gameplay that I simply couldn't make with animations alone.

That's also what makes creating bigger and more innovative mods like this so stressful. I can spend thousands of hours creating animations, only to reach the coding and testing side and have things repeatedly break. At that point, after so much work has already gone into the animations, there's a genuine fear that I might not be able to make the system work and all of that work could end up being wasted.

This update also came together during a particularly difficult period for me outside of modding, which made getting through some parts of development even harder than usual.

So finally seeing everything come together and being able to share it with you is incredibly rewarding. Thank you for giving me the time to keep learning, experimenting, and trying to create things that haven't really been done before. It genuinely means a lot to me. 💛

Download:

Volleyball Mod | Group Matches! (YouTube)