In case you missed it, The Sims Team hosted a deep dive livestream for the upcoming stuff pack, The Sims 4 Paranormal Stuff. The stream was hosted by SimGuruRad, SimGuruNinja, SimGuruFrost, and art director Stephen. SimGuruConor was not on the stream but he was credited for having a large role in the creation of the pack, including writing most of the text.
We were taking notes during the stream and we have all the details from the deep dive right here!
CAS
- Several new styled looks in CAS.
- Lots of heavy, flamboyant patterns but also some muted swatches.
- Clothes have a boho bayou feel; gives a sense that the Sims are more are attuned to the spiritual world.
- No new clothes for toddlers, but toddlers do get some new hairstyles.
Build/Buy
- New prebuilt library house! When loading the game for the first time after installing the pack, the game will prompt you to place this lot somewhere in your worlds. The house was built by Doctor Ashley, an EA Game Changer.
- New Lot Type: Haunted House Residential. This is not a lot trait; you can still assign up to 3 lot traits to your haunted houses.
- To avoid confusion, the Haunted lot trait has been renamed to Spooky, but still has the same functionality.
- Build mode objects were inspired by the New Orleans spiritualist scene. Pieces have a Queen Anne style reminiscent of the New Orleans French Quarter. Everything has an eclectic thrift store/antique vibe. The build items were designed to look like someone had put together bits and pieces of mismatched furniture from various thrift and antique stores.
- Small touches of multi-cultural influences from around the world have also been added to support the eclectic style.
- LOTS of clutter to go with the eclectic antique vibe.
Gameplay
- Haunted Houses don’t seem haunted during the day, but at night, they get spooky.
- New Gameplay Object: Séance Table
- Multiple Interactions on the Séance Table, including:
- Sense Spiritual Volatility – Tells the Sim what kind of specters are haunting the lot and how concerned they should be bout paranormal activity taking place on the lot
- Perform Ceremony – This will calm the spirits if the lot is becoming more volatile and being inhabited by not-so-nice specters
- Commune with the Departed – Just a fun interaction where Sims can receive messages from the beyond
- Séance Table is a standalone object; you can put any dining chair with it and place different decorative pieces on it. The crystal ball is not attached to the table.
- Base Game Feature: New Scared emotion with two levels; Scared and Terrified. Many base game and cross pack moodlets have been converted to trigger the Scared emotion.
- Scared Sims can scream at other Sims. This can have two outcomes; either the other Sim will calm your Sim down, or the other Sim will become scared themselves.
- If sims become too Scared, they’ll be unable to remove cursed objects on the lot or deal with the specters.
- New Skill: Medium. The Medium skill is a minor 5 level skill.
- Sims will unlock more Séance Table options as they level up in the Medium skill.
- Sims with higher Medium skill will float in their chair while using the Séance Table.
- Skilled Mediums can create a Séance Circle anywhere; they don’t need the Séance Table placed down. This is useful on Paranormal Investigator career gigs when the Sims you’re visiting don’t have a Séance Table in the home.
- Invoke the Dead is an unlockable interaction on the Séance Table through the Medium skill. This will either summon ghosts or specters. If you don’t have ghosts in your worlds to summon, specters will show up instead.
- Children can learn the Medium skill and use the Séance Table. Skilled child Mediums will also float in their chairs when using the Séance Table, just like adults do.
- Summoning Bonehilda is unlocked at later levels of the Medium skill. Bonehilda is a returning character from previous Sims games. She is a skeleton maid.
- Bonehilda is friendly and will clean and cook for you. She will stay for a day or so before disappearing, but she can be summoned again anytime you like.
- A lot of audio cues in the pack; spooky sounds and eerie noises happen at night on haunted lots. Lights will occasionally flicker.
- Some of the paintings and décor in the pack will change their appearance when paranormal activity is occurring. Unlike the dynamic portraits from Spooky Stuff, these decorations do not phase back and forth on a continuous loop; they are tied to the paranormal activity in the home. They will only change when certain happenings in the home trigger it.
- The point of a haunted house is that there is a level of spiritual volatility you’re trying to keep balanced; dealing with the cursed objects, performing ceremonies, and having positive interactions with the specters will help tone things down. When things start becoming really scary, your Sims will be too terrified to deal with anything so it becomes harder and harder to live there if your Sims are not regularly working on keeping the spirits happy
- Setting a lot as Haunted House Residential will begin a gradual tutorial where your Sims will receive popups and advice on how to deal with living there as things progress in the house over a period of several days.
- On your 1st night in a haunted house, you’ll get a welcoming popup introducing you to the fact that the lot is haunted.
- There is a ghost named Guidry who can provide aid to your Sims, but he does not appear on your first night in a haunted house. He will show up on the second night to help guide your Sims.
- Guidry is eternally Flirty and an overall friendly ghost. He has his own Guidry social category where you can ask him all kinds of things about living in a haunted house. He will help you out and give you information.
- Three types of specters: friendly, mysterious, mischievous.
- Mischievous specters can be more playful or aggressive; they can sometimes start fires.
- There is a “secret” fourth type of specter who is an “easter egg;” SimGuruRad referred to this specter as a “she.”
- New Career: Freelance Paranormal Investigator
- There are two ways to become a Paranormal Investigator. You can max out your Medium skill, then tell Guidry you want to become a Paranormal Investigator. He will give you a Paranormal Investigator License, which you can see in the traits section of your Sim’s info panel.
- If you want to jump right into the career as you build your skill and figure things out on your own, you can also purchase a Paranormal Investigator License for 3000 Satisfaction Points in the Rewards Store.
- Once you have your license, join the Freelance career using a phone or computer, then choose the paranormal branch. There are beginner, adept, and expert level gigs to choose from.
- Living in a haunted house teaches you how to deal with the career, so it’s recommended to live in a haunted house for a week or so before joining the career.
- When you travel to a Paranormal Investigator gig, your first step is to knock on the front door to be invited into the home.
- Once you travel to your gig, you have a progress meter and a time limit. Various actions you take will help fill the progress meter: removing cursed objects and symbols, asking specters to leave, and giving them offerings will all help to exorcise the home. You can also create a Séance Circle on the ground and perform a ceremony if your Sim is a skilled enough Medium.
- You can also offer your soul to specters but the Gurus warned this may not be advisable. They hinted that doing this shortens your Sim’s lifespan.
- Paranormal Investigator gigs can happen on any residential lot; you’ll get gigs all over the place.
- Every night you survive in a haunted house, you gain Satisfaction Points.
- There is a villainess in the pack. Her name is Temperance. She is a mean ghost and has a bad history with Guidry. She can show up on haunted house lots after a while, as well as on expert Paranormal Investigator gigs. She will greatly increase the spookiness of the home and try to sabotage your efforts to calm the paranormal activity going on.
- Specters will drop neat items, like ectocake and forbidden candy. Don’t be scared of eating the ghost foods they drop. They have positive effects.
- You can place Sacred Candles in the house to help protect you from the specters. They’ll help Sims feel less scared so they can handle the specters. They can be purchased in the Rewards Store for 500 Satisfaction Points.
- New Reward Trait: Brave. You can purchase this trait for your Sims from the Rewards Store, which lessens how often and how long your Sims are scared. Very helpful for Paranormal Investigator gigs.
- There is a hand décor piece you can use to stop Guidry from visiting. You can also enable “Heroic Mode” which will make the lot a LOT more haunted but also reward you with more Satisfaction Points every night you survive in a haunted house. This can be a good way to save up for the Brave Reward Trait. Once you enable that mode, you can’t disable it for a while.
- There are reward objects for playing through the new career; harmless versions of the cursed objects as well as various other oddities like soul pieces and jarred specters.
- There is a jarred Cowplant that can be named. Jarred specters can also be named.
- Reward objects can be sold to oddity collectors which is a good way to make some money back if you get duplicate objects.
- Specters on a haunted lot will attack the welcome wagon.
- There are some cross-pack easter eggs to discover so depending on what packs you own, you might notice some extra little perks and details. Some examples the Gurus revealed included Spellcasters being able to build the Medium skill faster and pets having negative reactions to cursed objects.
If you want to watch the full deep dive yourself, you can catch the replay right here!
The Sims 4 Paranormal Stuff will be coming to PC and consoles on January 26th, 2021!