The Sims 4 will be an Offline Single Player game with optional Online components for additional fun and social gameplay elements.
The Sims 4 is in Alpha stage of development, meaning that the Sims 4 is still in a very early stage of development, and may not contain all of the features that are planned for the final version.
Official Information
- New Sims – Create and control more intelligent, more relatable, and emotionally rich Sims.
- Intelligence – Your Sims move and act more naturally than ever before, from multitasking to expressing their emotions by the way they walk. Choose the personalities of your Sims, select their aspirations, and explore the depth of their lifelong goals through your Sims’ thoughts, social skills, careers, and memories.
- Emotional Depth – For the first time, Sims feel and express emotions. Your Sims can experience a diverse range and depth of emotional states and are influenced by interacting with other Sims, actions, events, memories, and even by the clothing and objects you choose for them. Emotions offer you more choice by giving you the opportunity to create richer stories with even more possibilities.
- New Creative Tools – Create A Sim and Build are more powerful, intuitive, and fun than ever before. You have the freedom to sculpt Sims with tactile precision. Effortlessly construct the home of your dreams with the all new room-based Build Mode.
- Vibrant Neighbourhoods – Choose among brilliant and diverse lots for your Sims to live in. Vivid visuals bring your Sim’s home to life.
- Rich Rewards – Earn new objects, outfits, and traits by completing events, discovering collectables, and unlocking achievements.
- Share Your Creations – Share your Sims’ households with your friends and the community. Download community creations for an all-new look.
Gameplay
New Emotional Gameplay.
Emotions can be considered a temporary trait that influences the interactions your Sim can do. For example a Sim cannot flirt when he/she is Angry.
Certain objects can enhance an emotion that the Sims is already feeling.
Colour does not influence Sims’ mood, a blue room won’t make a Sim sad.
Emotions cause different walks/facial expressions (when appropriate).
Negative (sad) emotions are not a bad thing because they unlock other gaming possibilities.
Depressed Sims gain access to different artistic, writing and musical styles.
Angry Sims will exercise more effectively and gain the ability to “Rage Run” on a treadmill or take anger out on punching bag.
Emotions come in base and tone form, for example the base emotion Angry can have an Enraged tone
15 Base Emotions - This list is unconfirmed
Angry – Enraged – Furious
Bored
Confident
Cranky
Dazed
Embarassed
Energised
Flirty – Passionate
Focused
Happy – Elated
Inspired
Neutral (Default)
Playful
Romantic
Sad – Depressed
Stressed
Moodlets
Also called Buffs in The Sims 4 and they influence which emotion your Sim is in
Several moodlets can stack up and become an emotion
Traits
There are 5 Personality trait slots that define your Sims’ personality. Then you can unlock new traits with the aspiration system.
Achievement Traits like Green Thumb & Natural Cook (names not confirmed) are examples of traits you can unlock with the aspiration system.
Personality Traits mentioned so far:
Mopey
Hot-headed
Peppy
Aspirations
Aspirations are similar to Lifetime Wishes or Wants from the previous The Sims games
Can have more than 1 aspiration, though it has not been confirmed yet how this works. Can Sims have several aspirations at the same time or is it one after the other?
With aspirations the Sims are able to unlock new outfits, objects and traits.
Whims
A goal your Sim wants to do in the moment (The Sims 2: Want – The Sims 3: Wish), like mix a drink or play with a chess set.
Grants Lifetime Happiness points
Achievements
Confirmed they are similar to The Sims 3, player based not Sim based.
50 mile high club – Woohoo in rocket ship
Collectables
Just a mention that they will be there
Life Stages
Baby
Toddler
Child
Teen
Young Adult
Adult
Elder
Deaths
Deaths will be less random and depend more on your (lack of) action
Meteors are confirmed to not be in the basegame
Careers
Each Career has up to 10 levels for a Sim to Master. Like
The Sims 3 Ambitions, there will also be timed events that your Sim can complete for a job boost. Each job level with unlock new content for a sim to place in their home, so it’s easier for players to represent that Sim’s career in decoration.
These careers have been mentioned so far:
Chef/cooking
Astronaut
Events
An event system has been mentioned. For example a Sim can host a singles event, invite all the singles in the neighbourhood to a party. Or as a chef attend a special event dinner
Events
An event system has been mentioned. For example a Sim can host a singles event, invite all the singles in the neighbourhood to a party. Or as a chef attend a special event dinner
It sounds more in-depth than the Opportunity system from The Sims 3
Skills
These skills have been mentioned so far:
Gardening
Painting
Woodworking
Guitar
Violin
Cooking
Woohoo (1 to 5)
Writing
Cleaning is there but not a skill
Drinks in screenshots and early hints suggest there is also a Bartending/Mixing Drinks skill
Intelligence
Sims look at each other
Interactions can be done seated or standing
Multitasking
Multitasking is only when appropriate! So no writing on the computer and talking.
So far we know that Sims can:
Walk and talk (exercise and social need)
Eat and talk (hunger and social need)
Cook and talk (create food and social need)
Paint and talk (painting skill and social need)
Needs
Needs are still there, but no word yet on how they will be displayed.
Final UI was not confirmed in August 2013
Food
These foods have been confirmed:
Pancakes
Scrambled Eggs
Bodyshape
Sims will gain weight if they eat unhealthy and not exercise and of course Sims lose weight when they eat healthy and do exercise.
Create a Sim
Sculpting with the mouse – push/pull method instead of sliders
Adjustable Parts
What you can adjust depends on the view you are currently looking to on the Sim in the front view you can adjust the stomach, but not the butt.
These parts on a Sims’s Body can be adjusted:
Breasts/Chest
Butt
Cheeks
Chin
Eyes
Eyebrows
Ears
Forearms
Hips
Jaw
Legs
Mouth
Neck
Nose
Shoulders
Stomach
Thighs
Upper arms
Sliders
There are still two sliders:
Weight
Muscle tone
Other Create a Sim facts
Trousers automatically know if they can go in boots or over them.
Hats can be put on any hair type
Smart Randomizer – Can (de)select the following options to randomize:
Body Shape
Body Size
Face
Skin Tone
Hair
Facial Hair
Voice
Clothing
The UI at Gamescom had a
Name randomizer too
Can select different walk for a Sim (Emotional state will override these walks):
Default
Perky
Snooty
Swagger
Sims can be left or right handed. We do not know if Sims can be ambidextrous or if this is a genetic trait.
At gamescom there were limited amount of preset options colours for hair/clothes
Can select voice pitch
World
So far screenshots have shown a very vibrant world with a New Orleans Style.
Rumours suggest that there will be several worlds in The Sims 4 but these are rumours not confirmed yet.
Buildmode
Build and buy mode is called just Build mode in The Sims 4.
Rooms
Pick up and move an entire room like an object
Pull/drag walls to create bigger rooms
Number of Floors
3 stories + roof was mentioned as the floor limit at Gamescom
Walls and Wall Height
There are 3 height options per floor.
Single Wall placements are still possible
Can place entire rooms in one go
Fences
Curved fences are possible
Fences can easily be replaced with another fence – no need to delete/rebuild!
Windows
There are 3 options for each window that accommodate the different Wall Heights
There is a button that allows you to place windows on all the walls with 1 click
Still have full control and if a painting is on the wall, a window will not be placed there
Foundations
A single button to place a foundation under the entire house and adjust its height. If there are stairs onto the foundation, the stair height will automatically adjust with the foundation height.
Foundations were unfinished at Gamescom, there was no word on basements or single tile foundation placements.
Split level
No tool for split levels at the time, still considering it at Gamescom
Roofs
Can make sides of roofs longer or shorter while keeping the roof size (above the house) the same
Can change the curve of the roof
Can change roof patterns on individual sections
Decorations
Friezes, roof trims and Spandrels are possible
Cantilevered Rooms
Second floor rooms that extend over the ground floor no longer need to be supported by columns.
Custom Content
Custom Content will be supported (I assume they mean like sharing of houses and Sims)
It has been mentioned that it will be done through the game, not using an external website.
Magazine Mode + Filters
Magazine Mode is an improved system of the Blueprint system in The Sims 3, can instantly place entire decorated rooms which can then be adjusted.
In the User Interface there will be an option called filters, this filters all the objects based on a colour.
Times of Day and lighting
There is a button that shows different times of day so you can see what your house looks like. There were more options than just day and night.
Lighting spreads down through the floors, no static line when the floor stops
Objects
Confirmed objects:
Chess set
Cowplant
Cars – No word on animations that come with the cars
Easels
Punching bag
Rocket ship
Treadmill
Voodoo doll
Violin
Guitar
Cupcake factory
Microscope set
Telescope - Observatory
Animations
Goal to make Sims less robotic and more human.
Emotions
There are emotional walks, sad or angry walk for example.
There are also emotional face overlays when appropriate, so you will sometimes see a sad face when a Sim is sad.
Socializing
In a social group Sims will make a circle to socialize optimally
Sims have almost proper jaw movement when they talk, not exact lip sync but jaw movement is based on roughly what and how loud the sound is.
Sims do not need to always face another Sim completely to have conversation
Sitting
Sitting animation is more fluid
Many of the standing animations can also be done seated
Routing and Side Steps
Improved routing – goal is to make Sims almost never get stuck or have routing fails
Walk through a doorway without causing problems because of the new
Routing
Sidesteps make many animations possible that are robotic in earlier Sims games
Sims will follow garden tiles to go to the front door instead of the shortest path (though not insane spiral paths)
What is not there
Hair is not animated
No Height sliders
Sound
Over half a million sound files with a technical overhaul and acoustics. Sound blocked by a wall will sound different depending on room size.
Professional musicians were asked to swap hands to record Sims playing an instrument badly.
Tone and pronunciation of Simlish will depend on emotional state
Miscellaneous
The Sims 4 camera movements will be much smoother than The Sims 3.
There will be cheats, no word on which
Memory system has been mentioned, but not how it will work
Sim Characters - Confirmed
The Grim Reaper
The Maid
Postal Worker
Bella Goth (Possibly)
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