The Sims 4 reveals Sentiments, Lifestyles, makeup and skin tone sliders

David Purcell
A picture of The Sims logo, with a woman in Create A Sim and an image from Snowy Escape

The Sims 4 Snowy Escape is releasing on November 13th, and there’s a new pre-patch to go over. Here is everything to know about the new additions.

The game’s developers, Maxis, have made sure that the game is regularly updated with constant features. Now, members of the community have even more to look forward to.

With so many people now stuck at home in self-isolation, the senior producer – known as Sim Guru Duke – previously revealed back on April 7, 2020, that over a six-month period there would be three different sets landing in the EA-published game. We now know these sets to be The Sims 4 Discover University, The Sims 4 Nifty Knitting, and the latest pack; The Sims 4 Star Wars: Journey to Batuu.

 

After having his timeline flooded with messages about what’s coming next in The Sims 4, the chief tweeted: “I know many of you keep asking about what is next for The Sims. We are working on 3 new packs for The Sims 4.” With the Snowy Escape pack releasing first, here’s what we know so far:

The Sims 4 Snowy Escape

The Sims 4 Snowy Escape is next up, releasing on November 13, 2020. It takes simmers to the beautiful world of Mt. Komorebi. Featuring gorgeous snowy trails, beautiful architecture, and a slew of new features to improve the Simmers’ experiences and their Sims’ lives, it’s sure to prove a hit.

This pack is a collaboration effort between the devs and various content creators for The Sims, such as Deligracy, who revealed the news of her collaboration on her Twitter account.

https://twitter.com/Deligracy/status/1321933896267702272

Mt. Komorebi features 3 distinct neighbourhoods, each with a different style to attract those with different tastes.

The first is Yukimatsu, a “true beauty of the countryside can be seen from […] named for its snow-covered pines. Located on the slopes of Mt. Komorebi, this area offers gorgeous vacation rentals, a variety of snow sports, untamed wilderness, and a peaceful Onsen Bathhouse getaway.”

Senbamachi is the oldest part of the region of Mt. Komorebi, with The Sims’ Interactive map stating that “the town of a thousand leaves […] is the oldest in the region. Many locals enjoy the town’s connection to nature, especially with the bamboo forests surrounding the town and unique spritely creatures that make a home in their leaves.”

Finally, we have Wakaba, meaning “young leaf” in Japanese “[…]Wakaba is young, new, and bright as the leaves of a tree in early springtime. This small town is up-and-coming in the region, home to beautiful, sleek new homes and an attractive town center featuring Mt. Komorebi’s official mascot: Yamachan. Tourists of all ages can enjoy the Festival of Youth, or simply take in the neighborhood’s natural beauty.”

https://twitter.com/JamesTurnerYT/status/1322143084285747205

The Sims 4 Snowy Escape’s new features

Featuring a beautiful snowy neighborhood, Snowy Escape brings in a fan-favorite feature from The Sims 1- snowboarding. Players are also able to put on skis and descend the powdery hills,  or grab some climbing gear to enjoy this gorgeous locale in adrenaline-inducing challenges.

Hot springs and hiking allow your sims to connect to nature and their zen. With a slew of beautiful new building components, furniture, shoji doors, and genkan entryways, players have lots of new options.

Sentiments and lifestyles

Sentiments and lifestyles are being added alongside to make Sims feel more alive. As mentioned in the press release, this revamp aims to bring more depth to the game by bringing about “up to 16 Lifestyles [that] will manifest in response to a Sim’s actions and habits, changing their behaviors significantly more than Create-a-Sim traits, as they reflect a Sim’s lived experiences.”

Sentiments come about as a way to change how individual experiences can feel different to individual sims – and so it seems one sim may react positively while the other reacts more negatively depending on their differing manifestations.

However, it is still unknown as to whether this feature will be integrated for free into the Base Game experience of The Sims 4, or included only as a feature of the DLC pack. In spite of this,  because the feature is a large rehaul of the content, it would be unsurprising to have it exclusive to those that purchase The Sims 4 Snowy Escape.

Skin tone and makeup slider changes

A picture from The Sims 4 indicating a sim with the new skin tone slider options
This new addition to Create a Sim will allow people greater control over the Sims that they can create.

A much-needed addition to Create a Sim, a December update will allow simmers to more freely create sims. Skin tones currently lack tone range, and makeup colour is limited to what is made available by the developers or modders. With this December update, however, people will now be able to fine-tune makeup looks and skin tone for deeper control with hue sliders. To get these features right, the devs have been working with Game Changers like Xmiramira and Mia Zaff.

The Sims 4 November Update

With Snowy Escape releasing on November 13, The Sims team dropped a new patch that includes some exciting additions to the base game experience. The new additions available for players are:

  • Platforms (this allows you to build rooms at varying height within one story level)
  • More Half-Walls (7 new varieties for half-walls)
  • Sentiments (moments between sims that allow them to react differently or similarly depending on their personality. Snowy Escape adds new ones relating to the pack, too)
  • Sim Profiles (a more concise, handy tool that contains all information and sentiments your sim knows about that particular one)
  • Skin tone updates for the console version that fixes darker skin tone artifacts and compression issues.
  • Vacation Anywhere (this requires players to have a rental lot in that particular world)
  • Toddler Slippers
  • S-Pop Radio Station (5 songs have been made available for base game, songs that came with City Living remain exclusive)

 

That’s all of the new content for now in The Sims 4. We will continue to update this page with new information as it drops.