The Sims4Network

16 Aug 2014

Well, as you know our news section, we have had the good fortune to be invited to Cologne by EA Spain. We have been in the press conference (on the official website you have the entire conference, including presentation of real gameplay LS4) and also ... we have been able to play for 4 hours at 4 !!!!! The Sims siiiiii !! On Tuesday we had an appointment at 08.12 local EA office, where, after a pleasant welcome and presentation by Rachel Franklin and Lindsay Pearson , we were assigned a PC person and let us try the game in full version for 4 hours.

My 4 hours LS4At this point, and after the week was another sim community members in San Francisco in the Creator's Camp, many of the new features that brings this saga have already been discovered and made public. Still, he was eager to see for myself the gaming experience that EA has prepared us with this new saga. ¿Would be worth all the sacrifices for innovations? Given that we each have some tastes and expectations, here I leave my personal opinion.

Build mode and CAS:

Since only going to have 4 hours to test the game, and the demo of CAS is now available on Origin for all , I really spent some time on these areas of the game. Yes I wanted to build a house with pre-mode modular designed game rooms. And the truth is that I found a fantastic option for those who do not want to spend too much time building (or think you are not good at it) and want to have a decorated and networked home 5-10 minutes (which was what it cost me to do it) . And this was what came out in that short space of time:Using this option is really simple, reminiscent of a choice of rooms for planes was introduced in LS3, only with more variety.

I chose the style I created first room, the kitchen, and from there I chose the rest of the house to combine. The flexibility of movement when placing the modules, see how the furniture will fit the new size of the room (whether you decide to extend and reduce), ease drop columns between the fences and decorative top of these. And especially surprised and pleased by the ease of placing ceilings. These have always been one of my dreams to build, I've never been able to do with the "trick" to place on LS3.

I spent a good while placing and destroying with the club until faced with the combination and the right size. Now it's really simple: as with other building elements, you can place a ceiling on the size it is and extend or reduce side by clicking and dragging! All this helps to streamline and facilitate the process of construction, which is of great advantage to build as you like. An interesting fact: certain objects as buy are "locked" and will be unlocked as your sim reaches a certain level in your career.For more information on this topic, I urge you in Spanish you read the very long and detailed article pekesims and English that of ruthless_kk .

As I did not want to spend more time building mode, as said earlier, and I did not build a house from scratch, I can not comment personally on the Elimination of CUS and how it will affect this tool used in LS3 players. If you are interested in the opinion of someone who is dedicated to building on LS3, I refer back to Ruthless and its personal opinion on this decision of EA.Live mode:After this house and quickly create a sim in CAS, I moved to one of the starter homes of the game and began my journey through LS4. For starters, I have to say that since the expansion came out Wanderers on LS3 had never happened again almost 4 hours on the way the game live. For my personal taste, playing LS3 mode ends up being repetitive I live. I get excited when a new expansion comes out and I can try new professions, interactions, etc. But after a few days, I return to find that even gets me bored.

Perhaps I have not been able to get the most juice LS3, but I find that everyday of my sims become very similar between them; easy to move up a career and to make friends and "evolve" in your life sim detracts somewhat interest to the game (we all know that can meet a sim for the morning and afternoon to be married to him / her ); certain actions are time-sim (hygiene, travel between points on the map) and end up consuming most of the day sim.

So this was what I expected to change in LS4: the way life was more challenging, more demanding, and more interesting, and to me all the innovations that we were "sold" so far (emotions, multi-tasking) what they have succeeded. The nearly 4 hours I spent in the live mode once I entered he made me short.The sim I created was extroverted traits, bookworm and genius. So he quickly begin to know the people first of Willow Creek (where I installed it) and Oasis Spring, where he came from time to time, with or without friends, to go to the bar / club and have a good time.Worlds and local community:It is true that perhaps the new look / palette of colors that were used for the new districts is not to everyone's taste, but I personally loved it, especially Willow Creek:Both day and night, has a very unique look that really works well with the new design of these sims. Common parks (one in each district) have the traditional elements (like grill, chess table, etc)local community and usually have outside area where sims can hang out in a park and more:(Museum of Willow Creek)Funny how I did not get to miss certain community facilities such as cinema / theater, even after leaving the offices of EA, as he said. But it is true that I missed my local sims often used frequently in LS3 and LS4 are not included: a bar / restaurant.

Although LS3 has evolved burrow, I liked it because I could have been there my sims together with friends / family and obviously "killing two birds with one stone" xD: refilling them the needs of hungry and fun at the same time. In none of the districts of LS4 is a bar or restaurant as such, but we have provided an option to this: every local community can be edited (even when your sim and other sims are the same) and you can add them to any decorative object / building available in the catalog, and unlimited funds, of course. What does this mean? Well, for example you can add a kitchen, a stove and a refrigerator in a given on any lot and your sim use it to cook for friends / acquaintances time.

Personally, I can not find an option to the restaurant, I still miss and would like to be included in the future. On the other hand, while someone from EA (sorry, can not remember the name ) I explained this option, he also taught me how easy it is now to modify a local community and change category. When you go enter the build mode while you are in a local community, if you clickas in other local you get a window with the items that you need for that location changes category (eg for Fitness: 3 weight machines, 2 televisions, etc.) and a counter next to it indicating how many objects will each you have and how many more you need.

And here I doubt arose: my sim was in a local community when the desire to buy a guitar emerged. In LS3, any time I could get into how to build / buy, though the sim was away, the camera will moved to the home of your sim and there they were buying a guitar, and problem solved xD LS4, if the sim it is in a local community, when you enter the building so what you buy is for the local community, not for your sim. Would not it be changed? Personally, I found how to change this.¿Sims in the local community? Ouhyeah!Here is my sim and a friend arriving at a local community: As you can see, they are still low and local and sims are acting and hanging out:In fact, the gym was packed a weekday until after 22.30hrs time-sim, which I found very funny xDLife-sim:The first thing I noticed when playing with my sim is how long is a sim day compared to LS3.

It gives you time to do much more, and you will not spend the day simply by showering the sim or make cook. In fact, the first time I got in the shower was worried because I thought xD lengthy time spent in the shower, they arrive to work (11am to 7pm at the start of the race), and I thought "well, now for dinner and sleep, "which is what would happen in LS3. Well it did not, it gave time and more. Actually, most of the day enjoying sim and do not feel the need to acquire the reward of "always-clean" or "bladder of steel" immediately so that your sim can take advantage of a day.

The speed when the sim will sleep much faster than LS3. When the sim will work, also accelerated the speed but not both.Well, speaking of work ... Since I introduced the world sim with LS3, I have to say I really missed burrows. Perhaps more especially to be playing with one sim, and therefore, at the time it disappears to go to work, I find that I can not do anything in the game. The download speed alone, so obviously you did not spend too much time, but still I found it a bit boring. I guess if you play with a family sim case changes, as have the rest of the family to play. It bothers me almost more than the loading screens, you really are a few second (15? 20?) And are actually faster than eg boat crossing Paradise IslandIn addition to hours of work, your sim needs to meet certain objectives to gain status in employment. My sim had to practice eg 3 hours writing.

I can not give you more information about this as the little time he did not advance in employment.I stayed with the pleasant sensation of increased life and activity in the neighborhood. My sim went to visit the house of a neighbor (at 7.30am sims stuff xD ...) that were glad to meet you even if those odd hours, and one of those neighboring sims he returned the visit on several occasions, I would say more often than LS3. Here's to Summer Halliday (? Sorry, I went down the name ), That is the neighboring named.and how some things never change, while my sim read a book Summer went to PC and when he got tired of doing push-ups in the room of my sim ... Anyway, back to business, I liked that relations between sims cost more time to evolve. Considering I spent about 3-4 days sim, just did it, and with much effort (also based chat night on the PC) to enhance the relationship between Summer and my sim to friends. With other sims, did not reach that level. Given that trait was outgoing, I noticed it cost so much, but as I have already said I find something posititivo.

Emotions:

Emotions! Who has not heard of them today? First, there is no need to panic or worry about the influence of these on a day to day of our sim. The sim will not be depressed by entering a room or going to happen in this state to one of immense elation in 3 seconds xD really has worked and been very thought of a "real" mode, with much common sense. Here I leave my sim icon showing three different emotions:Under normal circumstances, a number of neutral traits as the ones I chose for my sim (remember: outgoing, bookworm and genius) will default sim humor "fine", ie, normal, like most of us we meet every day. The "puffs" coming out over the head of the icon are the desires, and as you fulfill the mood / emotion of your sim may be changing. It will also change if something external like to discuss with someone what it happens. In the second picture you can see that my sim is happy "happy". This is the first "degree" in that emotion.

You will see that in this picture there are two "puffs" in gray with desires (having to do with my sim traits) and "puff" on the left is green. If we make the sim meets the desires that appear in this "little cloud", the degree of emotion increases. If these are not met, the sim returns to the "fine", so we have some control over our emotions sims (if we want to be more or not). In the last image, my sim was "inspired" inspired, so the "little cloud" on the left has another desire associated with this emotion. At the bottom we see the icon "animatrones" that influence that emotion will last more or less time in our sim.If it is true that will unlock every emotion with another emotion interactions are not available. All this certainly converge in changing the daily life of our sim, for my taste, making it more interesting.

Multi-tasking and AI (Artificial Intelligence):

For me, more surprising and even more striking innovation emotions: the multi-tasking. As much as they have told us about this, it is amazing when you see it in the game. It was a surprise when one night my sim was reading a book, and saw the need for bladder was low so I put queued action toileting.

Well, not idle, rather than put the book on a table as you would in LS3, took him to the bathroom and there he continued to read!I was amazed xD Can you also see it in the screenshot above where he is talking to Summer eating a cake at the same time without complaint at any time because it has not been sitting or anything Again, the conversations you have while dancing in the club:Improved artificial intelligence of these sims is visible especially in the keeping group conversations:You can see in the first two images as seen clearly who the caller at all times by the nod of sim and how gestures accompanying the conversation and make it more realistic.

Here is a paragraph that I have no choice but to say: Despite all these improvements, the sims are jogging to get from one place to another, or have not learned to walk slowly xD and still decide that the longest path is the best option to travel a distance between two points I guess it's part of its charm and that some things never change ...

Front end:

One last note to leave you my comments on the interface. Overall I liked it. As you have seen in all the screenshots, is purely visible and annoying in the game itself. At the bottom right is "minimized" the window of our sim, with tabs needs, friends, work, etc. To "control-freaks" as I initially disconcerting not to know at a glance whether the needs of my sim are low or not, but it's really not that complicated: if you see the last icon on the right, it will switch icon the need to go down with the corresponding color (eg yellow icon hunger) and will inform you of the state.

Shares queued accumulate in the lower left (those icons in a circular vertical). The camera icons, construction, floor level and the invisible walls, and gallery (exchange) are in the top right. Herein is all a matter of getting used to, and I imagine that in a few weeks and not notice a difference.Final opinion:I agree with the rest of the community who have tried the game.

In the words of Pekesims:

Do not expect a remake of The Sims 2 Do not expect an "improved" version of The Sims 3 The Sims 4 is a new game from scratch. Yes, Sim essence is still there, but if you really want to enjoy the game you must open your mind.

I think you can not say better. I enjoyed the game, especially in the live mode, as you have not enjoyed in LS3. Of course they miss things that we have become accustomed, especially at first, but once you enter the game if you can not keep an open mind pre-conceived ideas, you'll enjoy it. At least I did.And as we all love the classics, I leave you with the image of a sim I found walking late at night by Willow Creek ... come to party?

16 Aug 2014

Of the six motive bars present in the Sims 4 (hunger, bladder, energy, fun, hygiene, and social) environment is absent. This is nothing new, as the environment bar was absent in the Sims 3 as well. In the Sims 3, the environment bar was replaced with moodlets. If your Sim was in an area with lots of decorations, they’d get a positive moodlet, and if they were in a pig sty with lots of dirty objects, they’d get a negative moodlet. The Sims 4 incorporates environment-as-moodlets in a similar manner, but gives the whole system some major enhancements along the way.

Let’s start with the negative side of things. Just like in all versions of the game, objects get dirty; food on plates goes bad and puddles can form from accidents (both mechanical and biological). Having one or two of these messy objects in a room did not alter the mood of my sims, but once enough of them piled up, a +1 uncomfortable moodlet popped up for a dirty environment. Let the environment get more dirty and the moodlet grows in strength. While I did not test this directly, I would imagine slob Sims have a greater tolerance to (or immunity to) filth, while neat Sims would get bigger penalties than normal.

Just like in all versions of the game, objects get dirty; food on plates goes bad and puddles can form from accidents (both mechanical and biological).

An interesting note: You need a garbage can in your kitchen and it will get used much more regularly than in past games. When a Sim is told to clean up a plate with food left on it (spoiled or otherwise) before they take that plate to the sink, they walk over to the garbage can and scrape off all the food. Depending on how much food goes to waste, you will see the garbage can get full with relative frequency. You also don’t get a free outdoor garbage can and need to buy one to act as a final destination for trash. This is ultimately a good thing, though, as there are several styles to choose from, you can have more than one and they are fairly cheap.

On the positive side of the environment spectrum, you have PLENTY of decorative objects to choose from. There seems to be an increased emphasis on “Clutter” objects, little knickknacks and accessories that might not serve a literal function, but do add an environmental score. Lady Cheshire’s inspiration room sported a coffee maker that looked a bit out of place until I put a multi-coffee mug holder on a nearby desk. While the coffee mug holder was never directly interacted with, it gave the room much more character. There is even a category of objects in buy mode called ‘clutter’.

From a gameplay perspective, most objects will add their decorative value to a ‘well decorated’ positive moodlet. This moodlet gives you points towards the happy mood, which can be turned into other moods if a different positive moodlet is present. All the decorative objects from buy mode that have a decoration value will add to this generic happy moodlet. That doesn’t mean that other moods are left out, however.

Mood Auras

The hallmark effect of most of the career reward objects are that they can give off a ‘mood aura’ for a mood other than happy. This works very much like the ‘well decorated’ happy moodlet, except it is for a specific mood. Early in the writing career I was able to unlock a painting and a computer that both could give off the inspiried mood as an aura. Thus walking into a room with them would give a Sim an inspired moodlet and could potentially put them into an inspired mood, which is very useful for writers!

The other unique thing about auras is that they can be toggled on and off, and actually come toggled off by default when you place the item. Picture a house filled with dozens of these mood aura objects of many different moods, and all of the auras turned on. A Sim passing through the house would be assaulted with half a dozen different environmental moodlets and their dominant mood would likely change from room to room. The Devs have stated that they do NOT want a Sim’s dominant mood to constantly jump around like that, which is why mood auras are off. That said, if you WANT to create that situation, you can. Even with the mood aura off, a sim viewing a mood object will give them that mood; they just won’t get it from wandering into the room. Like the ‘well decorated’ moodlet, the emotion moodlets gained from mood aura objects only lasts as long as the Sim is in the room.

The strategy player in me LOVES this system. By gathering lots of objects with the same mood aura, you can place them all in a room and then pair them with objects that make use of that mood, which is exactly what I did with Lady Cheshire’s “Inspiration Room” (Which, by the way, is uploaded as a stand-alone room on the gallery).

And that leads me to the crux of decorations and mood auras: Paintings

First off, painting as an activity has been nerfed a bit. Children cannot paint. Instead they get their own activity table where they draw pictures to practice their artistic skill (that can be wall-mounted like paintings). The act of painting does not generate fun anymore and you have to pay for art supplies every time you start a new painting. That said, you will still be able to sell your paintings for a profit when you finish them, even at low skill levels (with the profit margin getting higher as your painter goes up in skill). Your Sim also gets a positive moodlet when they finish a painting to make up for the lack of fun. The moodlet itself doesn’t help your fun meter, so you’ll have to find a way to entertain your Sim, just like writers have always had to do. That doesn’t mean painting is no longer worthwhile. Far from it! It’s actually become much more powerful.

Of all the objects in the game, none are more impacted by your Sim’s skill and current mood than the easel. There are, of course, normal paintings that can be done that give nominal amount of environmental happiness points based on the skill of the artist, and in that sense they function the same as they have in the past.

Of all the objects in the game, none are more impacted by your Sim’s skill and current mood than the easel.

However, once your artist has a few skill points under their belt, the fun begins. If your artist is in a specific emotion, they gain the ability, temporarily, to paint a painting of that emotion. If they are feeling sad, they can make a sad painting. If they are feeling inspired, they can make an inspired painting. These paintings, once completed, can have an emotional aura that can be toggled on! Thus, even without career reward objects, you can make paintings for a room to promote specific emotions. (Or just look nice if you decide to keep the aura off). The only catch is that your sim has to BE in that emotion to paint a painting with that emotion. This can be trickier with some emotions than others, but certainly not impossible.

Being inspired still helps the quality of your paintings, but if you want to paint a different emotion, you’ll need to be in that emotion. The one exception is the reward for completing the artist aspiration. You gain the ability to paint a painting of ANY emotion regardless of which emotion your sim is in…thus you could paint an energized painting while still inspired, thus giving its inspired a quality bonus. Also it’s important to note that this doesn’t render career objects meaningless. Career reward objects take the form of MANY different things, including functional items. Level 2 writing unlocks a computer that has an inspired emotional aura and it is still a fully functional computer. Further, the act of unlocking a career reward object gives you one copy of it for free (And allows you to purchase more of it in buy mode).

The Stinger

And that leads me to my one big disappointment with the Sims 4. People rant and scream and howl about missing toddlers, missing pools, missing color wheels, and missing flat terrain. MEH I say, MEH! The game stands on its own without these things and I didn’t feel myself missing them too badly. I’ve never felt compelled to join the chorus of naysayers and it certainly doesn’t warrant the level of venom that can be seen on some of the message boards and social media.

However there is ONE item that did sting for me. As of the version we played at Creators Camp…there are no portraits and there are no still life paintings. THAT one struck a cord. Portraits were actually one of the major inspirations for the Legacy Challenge in the first place when I created it back in the Sims 2. The ability to memorialize your family’s ancestors while they were in their prime and remember them long after they’ve been dead was a hallmark of the Legacy Challenge…and it is missing.

The Legacy Challenge wouldn’t be the Legacy Challenge without portraits.

There is a silver lining to this black cloud, however. When voicing my concerns to the devs, their response was of surprise. This was not a deliberate feature cut due to technical limitations, but rather just didn’t make it in due to all the work they were putting into expanding the painting system. This is actually a good thing. This means that the technical hurdles to implementing portraits are not nearly as high as, say , pools and toddlers. They indicated that we might be able to see a return of portaits and still life paintings before an expansion pack, either via official patch or done via a mod.

The Legacy Challenge wouldn’t be the Legacy Challenge without portraits, and despite their current absence, I am writing them into the challenge (along with other ways to honor your ancestors ). The moment they make their return via official patch or mod, they will be brought back into the challenge in full force. If you are a modder and you make a mod to put this functionality in, I will feature you and credit you like crazy and direct Legacy Challenge Players to your site to get your mod (hint hint nudge nudge wink wink).

There is also a chance that EA might beat modders to this. In the final day of Creators Camp, we were all asked what the #1 concern was. Half the group said color wheel, the other half said terrain tools. I stood alone and voiced my concern about portraits, so EA is aware of how important they are to Legacy Challenge players.

Do not use this fact as fuel to say ‘oh Sims 4 is garbage, they’re trying to penny pinch us and sell us stuff back as DLC’. NO. The work they did to expand and improve the painting system is clear and the benefit is tangible. I’m no less excited to play the Sims 4 the day it releases because of this, I’m just going to keep my eyes peeled for a portrait patch/mod.

13 Aug 2014

I played several hours of The Sims 4 and barely uncovered what it has to offer. There's been a lot chatter about what's missing from The Sims 4, but I think there's already a lot to learn about EA's latest round of cheeky life simulation."We really invested in the the Sims," said Rachel Franklin, VP Executive Producer on Sims 4. "They have big personalities."That seems clear: The latest Sims emote in such exaggerated, wonderfully animated fashion that only an alien could fail to read them. Even when Sims don't react as you would expect, it can lead to fun results. For example, one of my Sims was making breakfast and he set the stove ablaze. His roommate came in like a champ with a fire extinguisher, killing the flames while another roommate squirmed in terror. The Sim who set the fire, however, simply watched with an air of calm and annoyance. As if to say, "You're ruining my fire. You're RUINING. MY. FIRE."

Read More

13 Aug 2014

Rachybop got to attend the Gamescom Community event in Germany, and while she was there, got to play the game.

She has put together this video of screenshots she collected.

View Here

13 Aug 2014

IGN Italy have uploaded a video of them previewing The Sims 4. Note that the video is in Italian, but they do show some gameplay.

Watch Here

13 Aug 2014

The Sims 4 Gamescom Embargo ends in just a few mintues. I will be posting all information we get in this section and not in the main news section.

13 Aug 2014

SimsVIP have been kind enough to record and upload The Sims 4 Press Conference and also The Sims 4 Features Trailer.

The Sims 4 Press Conference Replay

The Sims 4 Features Trailer

13 Aug 2014

We have some new Gamescom Renders, that you can checkout here.

13 Aug 2014

We have 3 new videos:

The Sims 4 Academy: Thunder Thighs - Lesson 2: Create A Sim

The Sims 4 Academy: Swagger - Lesson 1: Create A Sim

The Sims 4 Academy: Personality Diagnostic

13 Aug 2014

With Gamescom EA Press Conference only a couple of hours away, we will keep you up to date with all news collected from the event.

EA are set to release some 'Big News' at the event in regards to The Sims 4, so keep up to date with news as it happens.