Gameplay Overhaul Mod thumbnail
This mod adds realism & challenge—tougher bills, harder friendships, burglars, revised emotions, and careers with greater consequence.

Carl’s Gameplay Overhaul (formerly known as Carl’s Difficulty Mod) is a major gameplay tuning mod that increases challenge, realism, and depth across many systems in The Sims 4. It adjusts finances, relationships, emotions, careers, social mechanics, survival situations like burglars, and more—making everyday life less forgiving and more consequential.

Key Features
  • Income from careers, sales, and other sources is reduced (often by ~40–50%) so you must manage finances more carefully.
  • Bills and living costs are increased.
  • Relationships with strangers are harder to build; failed social interactions have stronger penalties. Family and friends are less affected.
  • Negative emotions, bad moodlets, and major life events last significantly longer and hit harder.
  • Gardening mechanics are tweaked: rarer spawn rates, more frequent watering needs, and more value in grafting.
  • Fitness, caloric systems, and metabolism are adjusted so Sims lose weight realistically via diet and exercise.
  • Burglars are added to the game, with options to enable burglar activity, defensive features like alarms, and interactions around theft.
  • Large number of togglable options via an in-game menu (usually accessed via the mailbox), so players can disable or adjust parts they don’t want.
Mod Release Date
November 2, 2021

REQUIREMENTS:
Base Game

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