The Sims 4 team have just announced some new features for the game, along with a new look. In the Maxis Monthly livestream, players were shown images of the new designs, which apply to in-game menus, as well as icons, and game art. There was also a demonstration of a new way to create Sims, as well as over 1000 new decorative objects that have been unlocked.
SimGuru Lindsay started by unveiling the new look for the game. As The Sims 4 approaches its fifth anniversary all the current pack art and menus have been updated. While some of the color schemes remain the same, the overall feel has been revamped.
All packs will now be color coded by type. Stuff packs remain green and game packs will remain blue. Expansion packs are changing from being multicolored to be teal-colored. All icons for the packs are now the same color as their pack type with a white background.
The new sims who appear in the images will be added to the gallery in the coming weeks, during which we will find out more about their backstories. We will also get a free base game update that will add in the new clothes viewable in the renders.
We were also shown a new Create A Sim feature, known as Create A Sim Stories. This optional feature allows you to answer a selection of random questions. These cover a range of different activities and packs. For each one, you can choose from 3 answers or ask for another question. The game then uses your answers to assign personality traits, skills, aspirations, and a career to a Sim. It will also allocate you either a low, medium or high amount of starting funds.
It was also revealed was that over 1000 items have now been unlocked for decorative use in the game. While a number of these were previously available through the debug cheat, many more were only environmental. The items are purely decorative but include the vans from StrangerVille and even full houses. Items will only be unlocked if you own the corresponding pack.
Console players were reminded that Island Living will be released on July 16. Console players will also get the last two free base game updates at this time. They are the freelancer career update and the Island Living update, which brought stilt foundations and new lot traits.
For those who use the Alexa Sims skill, there is now a daily trivia challenge which will have leader boards. Just say: "Alexa, ask The Sims to play daily trivia" to enable it. Fans were also told to keep an eye on The Sims socials next Thursday for a special video.
The new look begins to roll out from next week.