Motives

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Certain motives can drop faster based on the personality traits your sim has.

The game internally uses a 200 point system for motives. To put it simply, you want your motives to be in the green as much as possible. Try to avoid the red.

Negative: -200
Neutral: 0
Positive: 200

If a motive drops below a certain level, the sim will stop what they’re currently doing if that activity is not improving that motive.

If Free Will is off, your sims won’t do a single thing without you telling them to. They will literally just stand there, wave their arms and complain at you, wet themselves, pass out, and repeat as they starve to death.

Let's take a look at each motive below.

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Hunger
You need a refrigerator in order for your sim to eat. You also have the option to order pizza if you have a telephone. Pizza costs $40 each time you order it. Sometimes, you’ll get a fruitcake or candy box from sims who visit you.

Snack: +9 hunger bar points
Quick Meal: +16 hunger bar points
Full Meal: +16 hunger bar points
Group Meal (per serving): +16 hunger bar points
Pizza (per serving): +33 hunger bar points
Candy box gift (per serving: +3 hunger bar points
Candy box gift (per box): +12 hunger bar points
Fruitcake gift (per slice, 6 slices total): +7 hunger bar points.

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Energy
Sleep! Everyone needs a good night’s sleep. However, cheaper beds and couches will make your sims' energy rise at a slower rate than expensive ones.

If your sims' energy becomes fully red, well, the floor is now their bed! Their comfort also crashes to 0.

Coffee and Espresso gives your sims' energy a temporary boost, but their bladder motive will drop faster. Espresso also takes longer to drink. Keep that in mind when that carpool is on the way!

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Comfort
Many items have a comfort rating you can see in Buy mode. The more expensive the chair, couch, bed, etc… the more comfort points your sim receives. Pretty simple.

In the beginning, it’s actually best to buy low comfort items and then upgrade to better and better ones as you obtain more money.

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Fun
Sims like to have fun in different ways based on their personality.

The fun motive for child sims drops faster than adult sims. Make sure you have plenty of fun activity objects for them.

Some objects provide group activities for more than just one sim. They tend to raise both the fun and social motives of all the sims participating. Try the hot tub, pool table, or swimming pool, just to name a few.

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Hygiene
No one likes to be around a stinky sim. Make sure they take a shower or bath regularly. Baths not only raise your sims' hygiene, but also their comfort as well. The hot tub improves the hygiene, comfort, social (with 2 or more sims using it), and fun motive bars, but on the downside, they can be expensive.

Brushing their teeth at the bathroom mirror can also slightly improve hygiene.

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Social
As your sim socializes with more sims, more social interactions may become available. The success of those interactions depends on how well the two sims know each other, their current motive levels, age, personality, and even gender. Sims are complex, just like us humans.

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Bladder
If you got to go, you got to go!

Avoid a puddle on the floor by getting your sim to a toilet when this motive is low. If you don’t, you’ll end up with a puddle (eww) and your hygiene drops dramatically!

Beverages can make this motive drain faster.

Oh, and make sure your sim flushes the toilet. Sloppy sims tend not to do that (eww).

Make sure they wash their hands right after to give their hygiene a small boost.

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Room
Probably the least important motive, but still, one you want to keep an eye on. The higher the room score, the happier the sim. Now, what makes a good room score?

Lighting - Make sure the room has enough windows to light up the room during the day, and enough lights to brighten the room during the night.
Room Size - Sims don't like cramped, tiny rooms.
Corners - Boxes are boring. The more corners and diagonal walls, the better. However, keep in mind that doors, windows, and wall objects can not be put on diagonal walls.
Cleanliness - Throw away/take out trash, wash dirty dishes, fix broken objects, and generally tidy the room to keep that room score up.

Things such as trash, dirty/broken objects, messy beds, dirty plates, puddles/floods, full trash cans & compactors, dead fish, and flies can all bring down a room score.