The Sims 4 – Twitter Tidbits by SimGuruGraham (Additions added 6-27)

Here is a list of responses from @SimGuruGraham on Twitter about The Sims 4.

• There are loading screens between lots and neighborhoods.
• Your sims will be able to visit any lot at any time.
• As for right now, NPC jobs will only be available to NPC’s. E.G: Maid, mailman, gardener, etc.
• The action queue will stay the same but some actions can happen at the same time as others. (Multitasking).
• Colors will not affect emotions, as it always has been.
• There is absolutely NO monthly subscription.
• You will be able to change between multiple outfits as well as go back into CAS at any time.

• Are teens the same height as adults??

o   Yes. Teens have thinner frames than their adult self, less curves on their body, and a bit of youthful pudge on their face.

• Beside tablets, are desktop and laptops be appearing in The Sims 4? Also can you name a cool interaction with it?

o    Desktop computers are in the game as well. It has a TON of interactions with different fun videos. I personally enjoy trolling other Sims by sending them chain letters.

• Please can you tell us whether mirrors have realistic reflections in #TheSims4 ?

o    Yup, nice reflections on the mirrors. Also has graphics options to adjust the reflection quality as well.

• From the prints I saw, is there reflections on Water? It feels very clay on your prints, is it really it?

o    Oh no, we absolutely have real reflections.

• Do windows have the same reflection?

o    Windows have more basic reflections since you’re looking through them.

• Can we change graphics settings on the fly without having to exit the game?

 

o   It depends on which setting. Some yes, some no. Certain changes to shaders require restarting to take effect.

• Do you know anything about The Sims 4 being translated to European Portuguese? If it’s not, then why?

o   Sorry, I’m not involved in localization; those decisions are made outside the dev team. We aren’t doing a Portuguese translation.

• Can you say if there is private schooling?

o   Sims go to a regular elementary and high school, similar to the way adults will go to their jobs.

• How does the process of creating life stages begin, and then result in 1 of 7 life stages incomplete? I just can’t comprehend how that happens? Shouldn’t the Sims have all been done “together” so to speak? This isn’t like leaving out pools to prioritize other stuff. This is an actual life stage that’s missing, which in *my own* opinion, feels like something that should have been completed in the early stages of development, or at least with the other life stages.Was there some kind of “technical” reasoning behind it? I’m quite curious.

o    It’s an interesting design question for sure. From my experiences on Sims 3 and now Sims 4, most of the age groups are fairly isolated from each other and are developed that way. The youngest ages require a bit more design consideration as they rely on other Sims for their care. Obviously younger ages need entirely unique animations and clothing created for them as well. We try and build a different experience for each age, while also considering how what a Sim does at a younger age contributes to the following one. On the subject of adding more ages to an established game, it’s not overly difficult, it’s just very time consuming to generate the necessary amount of content to make a compelling experience. For example, the interactions and activities of a child vs adult should all be inherently different from each other so that you have fun and relatable activities, as well as unexpected moments in each stage in life. When adding each age, you consider what the iconic moments are that define it, and translate that to fun gameplay.

• What is the main difference between the Sims 3 and the Sims 4 that allows such expansion other than the new engine? I mean, how is it different than ts3? What changes were made to the way you built the engine? Did ya learn a lot from TS3?

o    I’m not a tech guy so I’ll give a relatively un-techy answer – I wouldn’t be a good person to comment on the differences in the engine. One of the really big changes with Sims 4 and something that was an early directive for the game was to put powerful tools in designer’s hands so that they could focus on adding content and increasing the depth of the content in the game without needing an engineer to implement or iterate on new functionality and new interactions every time we wanted something. The tool they use – internally it’s called Object Editor – allows them to select from thousands of variables to piece together all of the available assets and churn out content. For example – it’s a big part of why this is easily the most in-depth socialization system in a Sims game to date.

o   Yes, there’s a robust new autosave system that functions separately from the manual saves that you’re already familiar with.  (I’m going to assume this person asked if there was going to be an autosave function).

 

• Will there be weather in the base game?

o   No.

• Will there be basements in base game?

o   No basements in base game. Similar to Sims 3. Nothing about foundations prevents us from adding them someday though.

• I really like to take lots of screenshots, will there be something like a scrapbook in TS4?

o   Yup. You can view your screenshots in-game (or out), you can also turn any screenshot into a memory for a Sim.

• Because of no pools, does that mean no swimwear or can sims swim in the ocean?

o   There won’t be any swimming or swimwear in the base game.

•  I got a question. I don’t know if you can answer because it’s a bit technical.

  I guess you won’t have any problem when it comes to pools. But my question is if the game is built in a way that the team would be able to add new life stages (ages) via add-ons (updates or expansion packs). I’m not asking if you’ll do so, but if that’d be technically possible for The Sims 4.

  I’ve seen many features from past base games that have never been modified, maybe because touching that thing would imply re-adjusting many other things. And that’s what worries me.

o    There’s nothing preventing adding additional ages as the game evolves. CAS is a good example of a feature that is not technically feasible to add post launch.

• Will we be able to do those “soft movements” machinists use in ts4 like in the other games? Ok, in the teaser for example, while Sims interact there’s a movement in the camera in a smooth way.

o   Those are accomplished in our trailers via pre-set camera positions – yes, Sims 4 has those.

• Is the game going to be in Hungarian language?

o   I asked around – unfortunately The Sims 4 will not be localized in Hungarian.

 

 

Please Note: This list will be updated with new facts once they are confirmed by Graham.