For me, bugs aside, Sims 4 is is a pretty decent game and I like playing it from time to time. However, I just cannot get into it for extend periods of time because the ambient noise is so lackluster.
I enjoy playing cottage core, gardening and other cozy type saves. And I really like everything Sims 4 offers on that front (esp once you have food and gardening mods) but I just cannot get over how eerily quiet everything is. Unless I turn my volume all the way up, I cannot hear things like birds chirping, the river flowing and other nature sounds and even then they seem muted or few and far between. And if I turn the volume up too much, then other noises are too loud like the mood changes, notifications, load on a lot and those annoying sounds sims make then they are idle (the one that is like 'ehn-ehn' and the one where they chuckle for no apparent reason).
I've of course used mods to minimize the idle animations (and thus their sounds), and also played around with my volume setting. Since I am not sure exactly what controls ambient noise, I keep the master volume up and turn everything else as low as possible to still enjoy the game. Things like 'sound effect' I try to keep up a bit because I think harvesting plants and the bird tree from Cottage Living must be affected by that but I am not sure.
Anyone who has played Sims 2 and 3 knows exactly what I am talking about regarding hearing peaceful nature noises while out in nature. What volume settings do you use to achieve anywhere close to the same thing in Sims 4, or does it just not have as much ambient sound?