The Sims 4: New In Game Footage

The Sims 4 Master Info Compilation

Here is absolutely EVERYTHING we know about TS4, as of: 5/9/14

Multitasking- New technology allows Sims to eat and talk, exercise and watch TV…nearly any feasible combination of interactions. This makes Sims feel much more natural and believable.

Group Controls- Sims can form groups of up to six Sims. Groups can perform group interactions. Sims don’t have to all be standing or doing the same thing in a group. Sims will turn their heads and their upper body appropriately during conversations.

Needs/Motives- No more motive bars. Each need is either green, yellow or red, meaning it requires immediate attention (see below).

Emotional States- Within each of the emotional states – including happy, sad, inspired and depressed, among others – are a range of nuances that will unlock contextual actions. Sad Sims might be inspired to paint something depressing, while angry Sims might have extra drive when working out! Mood influences Sim behavior and animation as well- the way the Sim gets out of bed, walks, talks, and interacts with other Sims are all affected by mood. Emotions can even be triggered by dreams!

There will be 15 emotional states in the base game. Below are the known states:

• Neutral (Default)
• Angry – Enraged – Furious
• Bored
• Confident
• Cranky
• Dazed
• Embarassed
• Energized
• Flirty – Romantic – Passionate
• Focused – Inspired
• Happy – Elated
• Playful
• Sad – Depressed
• Stressed

Emotionally Triggered Abilities- Sad Sims do poorly at work, unless they are writers. Flirty Sims can dim the lights by clapping their hands. Emotions are like temporary traits.

Furniture Influence on Mood- An inspirational painting could boost the creativity of a Sim, while a room decorated with many romantic objects will make Sims feel “flirty”. However, just one romantic candle will not dramatically affect the mood of a Sim…it is more about the overall tone of the room.

Create-A-Sim- Like molding clay, but not as messy. Each Sim has 18 points the player can grab and mold to perfection. Advanced tweaking is also possible. Jewelry, hats and shoes are completely free from clothing. Body shape is genetic. Clothing can be unlocked by completing certain tasks and achievements. Click here to watch a demo of the new CAS!

Buy Mode- Furniture can be purchased through an Ikea-like catalogue, offering a range of items that directly influence how a Sim feels within the environment. You can drag and drop an entire room set and it will adjust to the size of the room dynamically. Furniture can be unlocked by completing certain tasks and achievements.

Build Mode- Just as in the new CAS, everything is fun and simple; you just plop down rooms and pull them apart and shape them as you please. The new “blocks” system allows for extreme flexibility. You don’t need to plan a house beforehand. The new system is more flexible and requires less time and patience. You can adjust the pitch, curvature and overhand of roofs! Still no curved walls. Automatic window tool.

Relationship System- Instead of one relationship bar that slowly increases from friendship to romance, TS4 now has two concurrent bars- romance and friendship. It will be much easier to stay friends with a Sim without delving into romantic territory. This also opens up the possibility for “soul mates”, or two Sims that have maxed out friendship and romance bars!

Aspiration System- Sims can have an unlimited number of Aspirations, which feature intermediate goals along the way and wide-reaching progression branches. Once a Sim completes an Aspiration, they’ll get the corresponding Aspiration Trait that goes along with it. A Sim that becomes a master chef, for example, will get a cooking-based Aspiration Trait.

Whims- A short-term goal for your Sim, like playing chess or mixing a drink. Similar to Wants in TS2 or Wishes in TS3. Grants Aspiration Points.

Traits- Some new, some old. Five trait slots and one for primary aspiration. Traits can be unlocked by completing certain tasks and achievements. The only confirmed traits so far are mopey, shy, hot-headed, sociopath, insane and peppy!

Skill System- Skills are split into three categories: Focus (logic, cooking), Inspiration (painting, writing, bartending), and Energize (athletic). Around 10 skills in base game. Some more skills are piano, guitar, violin, gardening (which is much more complex in TS4), social, writing, painting, dating, and exercise.

Active Careers- The core game system allows for events where players can go out and play through certain parts of their Sim’s career. Again, you’ll be interacting with other Sims as well to move up the career ladder.

Health- Sims naturally change over time. Eat too much and/or never exercise, you’ll get fat. Eat healthy food and work out, you’ll lose weight and/or maintain health. Sims will notice gaining/losing weight. Sims can no longer be muscular and obese at the same time.

Vibrant Neighborhoods– Chose among brilliant and diverse lots for your Sims to live in. Vivid visuals bring your Sim’s home to life. The new neighborhood looks a lot like the Southern US, but more stylized and charming.

Memories- Sims will remember past outfits, relationships and experiences. These memories will have a significant effect on their behavior and mood.

Sound Design- The game has over half a million sound files, and the sound system has gotten a technical overhaul. Sound now has direction; a Sim with his back facing the camera will sound a little muffled when he speaks. Music and sound will even be different depending on the shape of the room. Basically, TS4 has acoustics.

New Simlish- The Sims voice team has now tripled to nine different actors. There is specific ‘slang’ for different Sim age groups, and there is a greater focus on object-specific terminology. Simlish feels more like a real language in TS4.

Animation- Sims no longer pause in-between animations or look like robots when sitting in a chair. Everything is fluid and natural. It is subtle but very effective. Sims can perform most interactions either standing or sitting (you can sit on a bed and eat).

Path System- Sims in crowded spaces will maneuver around each other. Sims can pass each other on stairs. A hundred Sims can pass each other without a single one getting stuck. Similarly, a hundred Sims can all walk through a single doorway at once without anyone being stuck, stamping their foot in protest, or auto-canceling the interaction.

Events- For example, a Sim can host a singles event, and invite all the single Sims in the neighbourhood to a party. Or as a chef, a Sim can attend a special event dinner.

Confirmed Objects- Cowplant, teapot, rocket ship, voodoo doll, cupcake maker, cars, painting easel, punching bag and more!

Expansions and DLC- A list of over 40 expansion packs and content for TS4 was released by EA in an official survey. Much of this content will likely appear in the game at some point. Click here for the full list of titles and descriptions

Features that are NOT in the game:

Going to work with Sims

Create-A-Style-Tool

Height customization

Hair growth and animation

Unlimited levels in build mode (TS4 has three-floor limit)

Hair and skin tone customization (all of hair is one color, you must choose from pre-set color options, cannot dye or highlight, skin tones are also pre-set colors)

Weather

Gradual aging or new life stages

Sims 4 News

Russia: Sims game rated ‘adults only’ over same-s(Censored)x relationships

The latest Sims game has been rated ‘Adults Only’ in Russia, because it contains same-s(Censored)x relationships.

The Sims 4, which is due to be released later this year, was this week awarded a rating prohibiting its sale to minors in the country.

Same-s(Censored)x relationships have been present in the EA franchise since the first game in 2000, with same-s(Censored)x adoptions and marriage later added to the series.

The Sims 4′s official Russian Twitter account explained: “18+ rating has been assigned in accordance with the law number 436-FZ, ‘On the protection of children from information harmful to their health and development’.”

A previous game in the franchise received a 12+ rating in 2009, but Russia has heavily cracked down on portrayals of same-s(Censored)x relationships in recent years.

According to Ars Technica, the same game received a rating of just 6+ in Germany.

Although same-s(Censored)x relationships are possible in Sims games, they do not occur at random, and players must actively choose to initiate same-s(Censored)x encounters for them to appear.

Last week, Nintendo confirmed that same-s(Censored)x relationships would not be allowed in upcoming game Tomadachi Life, after removing them from the Japansese version last year.

GLAAD spokesperson Wilson Cruz had yesterday praised the Sims franchise for its approach to same-s(Censored)x relationships compared to Nintendo’s.

He said: “In purposefully limiting players’ relationship options, Nintendo is not only sending a hurtful message to many of its fans and consumers by excluding them, but also setting itself way behind the times

“It’s been over a decade since The Sims — the original ‘whimsical and quirky’ life simulator — allowed its users to marry any character they wanted, and many other mainstream and massively popular video games have followed their lead since.

“Nintendo should do the same.”
PinkNews

How Maxis is simulating more of what makes us human in The Sims 4

Everybody knows that The Sims expands. It’s one of the most continually iterated series in history, each main title receiving more add-on packs than the last.

What is less obvious about The Sims is that, at key intervals, the series contracts. Next year, Maxis will release The Sims 4 – and all that accrued expansion content will reset back to zero to allow the studio to make fundamental changes to the way its life simulation operates.

Producer Lindsay Pearson has been working on the series since the original game. “We hit a point during The Sims 3 where we wondered where the Sims were going to go next – what was the next evolution of what a ‘Sim’ means?” she says. “For The Sims 4, that was going back to the Sims themselves. [The decision to create a full sequel] is triggered by an idea, and then we have conversations about whether it is the technology that has to change or the content. This time it was both.”

Pearson began work on the sequel almost three years ago. Individual groups of developers move from the previous game to the new one as they become needed, starting with the engineers responsible for the base-level simulation and moving up through concept artists and content designers.

For The Sims 4, work has been done to rebuild the game’s pathfinding and animation engines from scratch. Previous Sims games have given the impression of being tile-based, with characters moving in stiff, fixed patterns between context-specific actions. In The Sims 4, characters dynamically adjust their positioning relative to what they’re doing and the social environment they find themselves in. Maxis has studied footage of crowd behaviour – filmed in EA’s Redwood City headquarters – in order to accurately represent the way, for example, a group of people chatting will respond to a new person approaching their circle. In The Sims 4, a character’s awareness is visible: their head and upper body move to acknowledge the new person, and they smoothly step back to create space in a way that is far more fluid than in the series’ past. The new animation framework has reaped other benefits, too – Sims can now pass each other on the stairs and walk through doorways as a group without causing a logjam.

Read more at Edge-Online

Thanks The Sims Hub

Developer Q&A: Ryan Vaughan, Producer for The Sims Studio

We unveiled The Sims 4 at our gamescom press briefing – to give you an insider’s look, we sat down with producer Ryan Vaughn to tell us a little more about this PC favorite and what the Sims team will be doing this week here at gamescom.

Q: What is the biggest difference in The Sims 4 compared to The Sims 3?

A: It all starts with the biggest innovation in The Sims 4, the Sims themselves. Our Sims have evolved into emotionally aware beings whose every action is affected by what they’re thinking and how they’re feeling. Now you get to play with the mind, body and heart of the Sims.

Our second big feature is a new set of technologies we’re calling SmartSim. This has allowed us to make the most intelligent and relatable life simulation ever.

And finally, we’ve completely rebuilt our creative tools to be more intuitive, more powerful, and much more fun to play with. For the first time you reach into the world and shape your Sims by hand and build your homes room-by-room with ease.

You’re going to be able to see this in action during The Sims Live Broadcast so check it out! [Airs at 8am Pacific on Thursday, August 22 at www.TheSims.com/live]

Q: Sims have now been around for over a decade. How do you keep it interesting for (very passionate!) fans?

A: It’s funny you ask that, because it’s actually the fans that continue to drive our excitement about The Sims. It is their undying passion that energizes us, and their continued devotion that inspires us to create the kinds of games and content that we want to play. We’re constantly surfing the forums, checking in with them on Twitter via our @SimGuru accounts and looking for their feedback so that we can deliver the experiences they’re looking for. Keep it up, guys, we’re listening!

Q: So, what’s going on at SimsCamp this week? Tell us more!

A: We’ve invited top fans of The Sims from around the world to converge at SimsCamp to get an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at The Sims 4. In addition to being amongst the first people in the world to play with Create A Sim, they’re the first to go behind the curtain to see how all of the pieces of our game come together.

Q: What is the feature you’ve waited for the most to show off while at gamescom?

A: The Sims themselves. These are revolutionary new Sims with emotional centers that behave and react more naturally than ever before. Every one of their actions is affected by their emotional states that lead to richer, more meaningful gameplay.

Q: How long have you been a Simmer yourself and what makes you love this franchise?

A: I started working on The Sims in 2007 when I was lucky enough to land on The Sims 2 team, but I’ve been a Simmer since the beginning. My favorite part about The Sims is that it’s a blank canvas. We give players all of these creative tools and they use them to tell their own unique stories.

For me, I love to build homes. So it actually really excites me that we’ve completely revamped our Build tool. It has all of the power that I want, but it’s tactile and flexible so that I can make great homes with ease.

EA

The Sims 4 Press Release & Screens

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Life just got better. Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) today announced the first details forThe Sims™ 4, the next-generation of the hit life simulator franchise launching in 2014. The Sims 4 gives fans an entirely new way to experience the excitement and delight of life’s moments. Built on a brand new technology platform, The Sims 4 empowers players to create and control an entirely new generation of Sims like never before. Through powerful new creative tools and dynamic, emotion-rich gameplay, every relationship is interwoven to create a ripple effect that shapes the life journey of the Sims. The world debut gameplay trailer for The Sims 4 is available to view at www.TheSims.com.


“Over 10 years ago, we created a genre, now we’re taking our most revolutionary step forward by focusing on the heart of the franchise, the Sims themselves,” said Rachel Franklin, VP and Executive Producer for The Sims 4. “The magic of The Sims has always come from the combination of the player’s creativity and the Sims’ free will, and in The Sims 4 we’re taking this further by unlocking more possibilities and deeper gameplay opportunities. The Sims 4 is the bold leap for the franchise where each Sim now has a rich emotional center that drives meaningful social interactions. Your ability to affect the mind, body and heart of these new Sims brings your stories to life in a way that is more personal than ever before.”


The Sims 4 brings all new ways to play with life. Built on the foundation of a brand new technology platform, the nuance and delight of being human come together to create more intelligent, more emotionally rich and more relatable Sims. These Sims have evolved into beings whose every action is informed and affected by interactions and emotional states. Because players are in control of life’s triumphs and failures, life’s moments make stories richer, Sims more relatable and their homes more personal. Pair these revolutionary new Sims with brand new creative tools that are powerful, agile and tactile, and the result is a provocative new gameplay experience that powers a new era for The Sims.

The Sims 4 combines revolutionary Sims with powerful creative tools and all-new emotion-based gameplay, to reinvent The Sims experience. Built on the foundation of brand new technologies that Maxis calls SmartSim, The Sims 4 is the most intelligent, relatable and personal life simulation ever. For the first time, player choice shapes not just a single moment, but the entire life journey of the Sims.


For more than a decade, The Sims has entertained millions of people across the globe and has left an indelible footprint on the interactive world. A world-renowned interactive entertainment phenomenon, The Sims has sold 175 million units to date and continues to enhance its rich multi-platform portfolio with offerings that inspire creativity and reach one of the most passionate audiences in interactive entertainment.


Tell Stories That Span a Lifetime – Life is incredibly rich and multifaceted. The Sims offers players personality and aspirations that emulate the beauty of life but, for the first time, in The Sims 4, Sims are now emotionally aware. They are capable of experiencing a range of emotions that have a direct impact on the way the game is played. In The Sims 4, player choices influence the gameplay not just in this moment but down the line. Just like in real life, these choices have a cascading effect that shapes the entire life journey of their Sims.


Connect with Sims on a New Level – Players are in control of a new wave of Sims, brimming over with intelligence and unique characteristics. The result of this enhanced intelligence is new Sims that behave and react more naturally than ever before. Stories unfold dynamically as Sims socialize, multitask, and engage with each other on a new level.


Creativity for All – Rebuilt from the ground up to be more powerful and intuitive, the tools in The Sims 4 will change the way players bring Sims and their homes to life. With Create A Sim, players reach into the game, sculpting Sims by hand; it’s like playing with clay, but less messy.


The new Build Mode gives players all the control they want with new tactile features that allow them to build homes by simply dragging and dropping rooms. It’s easier and faster for players to create the homes they want. These tools have been designed to allow players to create with speed and flexibility.

More at

The Sims Hub