The Sims 4 Adventure Awaits Blog: Custom Venues and Getaways

Introducing Getaways

Hi, I’m Soo, Feature Producer on The Sims 4 Adventure Awaits Expansion Pack, we’re here to give you an insider look into two exciting new features coming in this expansion: Getaways and Custom Venues! One of the things I love most about The Sims is how every new feature inspires fresh opportunities for players to tell their own stories. With Getaways, our team set out to deepen storytelling while staying true to what makes The Sims fun–freedom, creativity, and a little challenge and chaos.

Hi, I’m Nikhil, Lead Designer of Getaways and Custom Venues.  I’ve always admired games that give players powerful creative tools. With Adventure Awaits and the Getaway system, we’re bringing new levels of customization to multi-day experiences in The Sims. Our team is incredibly excited to empower you with features like Schedules, Roles, Activities, and Rules to shape your Getaway–and we can’t wait to see the inventive twists you’ll create!

So let’s dive in together!

What is a Getaway?

A Getaway can be many different things in The Sims 4. It can be, quite literally, a way for your Sims to get away from everyday life and stay with other Sims in a new location, with a schedule of activities that guides what they do. Getaways can be camps that orient Sims around developing skills together, or retreats where Sims focus on their relationships or creative pursuits. But Getaways can also be a weekend away at Grandma’s house, or even a weekly workout class. You can decide your home is the perfect base for a Getaway and have an entourage of Sims stay at your residence.  

What is a Custom Venue?

A Custom Venue is a new type of Lot that goes beyond standard Venues (i.e. Museums) by letting players design the experience. The Venue builder allows you to set rules and assign roles to Sims–and, yes you can enjoy Custom Venues without the Getaway System if you’d rather focus on world building. Not a builder but still want new Custom Venues? Check out the Gallery for inspiration!

What Kind of Getaway Should I Make?

• When planning a real adventure, you might ask yourself:
  • Where do I want to go?
  • Who do I want to go with?
  • What activities will we do there?
  • When should it happen?
  • And most important for yourself: why are we going there?

You might know some of the answers to these questions, and as you answer one question, the other answers may become more clear. We wanted Getaways to begin with whichever of these questions inspires you. Start with an idea—a place, a goal, or even just a vibe—and then shape the rest of the experience from there. This is your simulation within a simulation!

A Player’s Story: Bonfire at the Beach

Let’s take a look at how Getaway’s provide choices to help you create your “who, what, when, and where” in game.  As for the why—that is discovering what motivates you to take on something different for your Sims, create your own storyline, and perhaps even bend a few rules or embrace new challenges.

“Where do I want to go?”

• I want to go to the beach.

“Who do I want to go with?”

• I want to go with my friends, but I want to meet new people too.

“When are we going?”

• I want this to last at least 4 days. But who knows? Maybe I’ll extend it again and again…

“What are we going to do there?”

• I don’t just want to party or lay around, I want to get in shape by swimming and diving, maybe even get out of bed early and do some sunrise yoga.
• And I want there to be a beachside bonfire with some dancing and maybe even a musician.

“What’s this Getaway called?”

We’ll call it Bonfire at the Beach!

“Why are my Sims going here?”

• We just want a relaxing beach vacation with friends where we can do a little bit of everything, from making new friends to building new skills to kicking back and just taking in the view.

Small Changes Transform the Getaway

• As this Getaway unfolds, imagine if we answer these questions a little differently:
  • What if this Beach Retreat is for Sims to get in great shape and compete to see who’s the most fit Sim? What if we change the competition to be about finding love?
  • What if the next round of the Beach Getaway is about couples who are returning here to work on their strained relationships – or give up and find new romantic options?
  • What if we removed the staff and trainers and supporting Sims, and beach visitors had to fish, cook, clean, and support themselves from the natural environment around them?
  • What if you purchase this lot, and earn money by letting visitors stay here and enjoy a luxury villa experience?
  • With Getaways, you can take the same idea and evolve it into something entirely different.

The Building Blocks of Getaways

When you create a Getaway, you’ll use 5 core building blocks that each work together: Roles, Schedules, Locations, Activities, and Rules.

Schedules, Roles and Activities are your strongest tools as a Getaway creator. The Lot you set up (including a Custom Venue that has its own behavior you can define) gives you control over a place, so you can make anything from a rustic survival camp to a lavish mansion. And Getaway Rules let you add elements of competition, challenge, special layers of gameplay that “remix” your Sims experience.

Roles – The Who

Roles are all about the who of your Getaway. Each role contains 3 important parts: Sim Criteria, Role Activities, and Outfits. 

Sim Criteria

When you decide on what kinds of Sims you want in a Role, you can choose what kind of Sims you want through Sim Criteria, as well as choose the specific Sims you want to be included in that role. When you use Sim Criteria, you are choosing what Traits, Skills, Relationship Status, and other gameplay and personality factors you want Sims in this role to have. Sim Criteria also gives you the choice of whether you want to require Sims to fit that criteria, or whether you wish for that criteria to be more of a preference.

When you don’t have specific Sims in mind, by setting the “Total Sim Count” to whatever number of Sims you desire, the Getaway will find the right Sims that match your criteria and bring them in for you.  

Role Activities

Setting a Role’s default Activities allows you to decide what a role generally cares about doing, so when you add this role into your Getaway’s schedule, the Role already focuses Sims on behavior that’s important to them. This makes it easy to start shaping your plans right away. However, Roles are not limited to their Role Activities – when you make a Schedule, you’ll have the ability to give Roles different Activities during specific Time Slots. For example, you could have a Fitness Instructor (Role) who has the default activity of Mentoring Fitness, but you can still have this role leading spin class in the morning and hosting a dance party at night.

Outfits

Lastly, you can set default outfits for your Roles! You can go in depth and style each of their outfit categories, or keep it simple and pick a Style, a Color, or an Outfit Category that represents what this Role is all about. Each Time Slot will also let you swap outfits too, so when you are choosing your Role Outfits, think about what this Sim generally likes to wear.

Schedules – The When

Now, Schedules are the “managers” of your Getaway. They decide what happens, when it happens, and who is involved. Time Slots allow you to create periods of time and decide what Sims care about doing within those hours. You can create many time slots or even stick to just one time slot and you can arrange the hours in the day as you wish – which allows you to create Schedules that can feel simple and laidback, or busy and packed. 

Each Time Slot can have its own Activity, Roles, Outfits – allowing you to create different combinations of Sim behavior throughout the day. Your Getaway can be a relaxing fishing retreat in the morning and turn into a flirty dance party by the evening. 

And remember, you don’t have to plan everything out perfectly (or at all) when you get started. Schedules are flexible and nothing is “locked in”. 

You can make changes before the Getaway begins, or even switch things up while it is happening. Change up Activities, bring more Sims, or just clear out a time slot and give your Sims a little free time. It is entirely your choice whether the schedule becomes a detailed itinerary or something a little bit more spontaneous. 

Activities – The What

Sims Care About Doing Activities

Activities are the experiences that bring the schedule to life. Think of them as strong suggestions that your Sims care about doing, but not absolute rules they must follow – Sims will try to do interactions that relate to an Activity, but if they can’t or if they have more pressing wants or needs, they might choose to do something else. Maybe the plan calls for a group hike, but if you stayed up too late the night before, you might decide a long nap is the better option.

Activities are one powerful layer that influences how Sims at a Getaway behave, but Sims at a Getaway will respond to possibilities and objects they have on their lot, the things they see in the world around them, and the moods, wants, needs, and relationship influences that they experience at the Getaway. 

Multiple Activities

When you give Sims multiple Role Activities as well as a Time Slot Activity – Sims try to make the best decision possible, beginning with their Role Activities that will generally take priority. As you add multiple Role Activities within the same time slot, Sims will try to find clever ways to do two things at the same time – but if multiple Role Activities can’t be done at the same time (ie, Play Video Games and Go Fishing), Sims make a choice which is influenced by their motives and dozens of other factors that make up Sim autonomy. 

Activities Grow with Packs You Own

The list of activities with Getaways is already full of options, but if you happen to own other packs, Activities from those other packs will also appear, letting you take full advantage of the content you already have. That could mean yoga with Spa Day, horseback riding with Horse Ranch, snowboarding from Snowy Escape, or scuba diving in Island Living. There are also individual Activities available with Adventure Awaits, like “Water Activities” or “Cause Mischief and Mayhem”, which grow based on which packs you own. 

Earning Rewards from a Getaway

Activities, simply put, are what your Getaway is all about. Whether you choose one activity or several, these Activities shape how your Sims experience the Getaway, from how they spend their time to the lasting impact once the Getaway ends! Sims don’t have to do every Activity or follow a schedule rigidly to earn impactful Rewards from their Getaway – whatever your Sim tends to do more often, whether it’s cooking and crafting, or outdoor exploration, or socializing and making new friends – that will determine what Rewards your Sims earn when the Getaway is done. 

Locations – The Where

Every great Getaway starts with the right location, and now you have more choice than ever. With the new lot type filter, you can browse and select from a wide variety of lots. Most venue types are available to choose from, like bars, gyms and lounges, and even other Sims’ residential homes!

Ever dreamed of hosting a black-tie piano recital at the Goths’ mansion? Now you can! (Though your Sims will have to pay for the cost of using their home). With such an expansive list of locations to choose from, the possibilities are nearly endless.

You can even host a Getaway at your own home. Doing so earns you Simoleons (and maybe even a few tips) from your guests, turning your residence into both a destination and a source of profit. Hosting more Sims on your lot and increasing your residence’s lot value will allow your Getaway to earn progressively more Simoleons per day!

Rules – The Why

Getaway Rules allow you to “remix” your Getaways with additional gameplay that could involve challenges, eliminations, gameplay boosts, and other elements that modify Sims’ experiences. Rules can be combined – you can choose up to 5 Rules and you can choose which Roles in your Getaway these Rules apply to. This gives you control to set up groups of Sims who are contestants up for elimination, or judges whose relationships will dictate the fate of others. As you find different combinations of Rules to apply, you can create your own versions of survival camps, reality TV drama, romantic retreats, focused goal-based camps around learning skills or boosting productivity. Rules give you one more way to bend the simulation to suit your story. 

Taking It to the Next Level

Once you have the basics down, Getaways can grow beyond the expected answers. You can make Getaways that don’t really sound at all like Getaways – but, they use the core components of a Lot to stay in, a Sim or group of Sims to participate in the Getaway, and a Schedule that defines what your Getaway is all about.

You can set them as recurring events so they slip right into your Sims’ weekly routine, choosing both the duration and the days they repeat! Maybe it’s a Weekend Boarding Camp for your kids, or maybe it’s a Friday Night Retreat the adults can’t wait for. 

Rules are where things really heat up, letting you layer on custom challenges or even eliminations, where each day the Sim with the lowest skill or progress has to pack up and head home. Suddenly your relaxing vacation could feel more like survival camp, a cutthroat competition. And yes, our personal favorite is Love Highland, but you can always put your own spin on it! 

When you’re ready to share, you can build a Custom Venue, attach your schedule preset, and upload it to the Gallery for everyone to enjoy, or even grab someone else’s creation to shake up your own saves. Over time, we hope these Getaways will grow into The Sims 4’s larger ecosystem, turning Getaways into stories that are as wild, heartfelt, or hilariously messy as your imagination allows.

Playing Getaways YOUR Way

Start with Your Favorite Areas of The Sims

Making a complex Getaway completely from scratch involves digging into several areas of the game – and every Sims player has areas of the game they love to tinker with, as well as areas of the game they put less attention into. We encourage you to pour your effort and creativity into the Building Blocks that appeal to you, and make use of our Premade Schedules and Roles, Builds from the gallery or in world, and Sims you already care about to get a strong foundation going in the areas you don’t feel like digging into right away. 

Dive Into the Details that Interest You

If you love to build, create the Custom Venue of your dreams, pour your eye for detail and construction into the lot – and then complete that venue with a simpler schedule filled with premade roles.

If you love to tell romantic and dramatic stories between Sims – start out with a great Getaway lot for romance – the Addams Residence, which has private areas to woo Sims and little details like mirrors and flowers to boost your romantic success. And pour your heart into the Roles, Schedule and Rules, thinking through the details of which Sims need to be there, how they should behave, and how jealousy and past history might come into play.

If you like to achieve as much as possible, with a sense of efficiency and creativity to power your Sims to great heights… think carefully about how you can economize the Getaway’s cost (or perhaps, host it on your lot), making clever decisions around whether to have the highest quality objects. Design a legion of helping Sims – staff to clean, chefs to make meals, skillful Sims to mentor. Add the Rules to boost your Sims success.

You certainly can do it all if you want to – but it’s not a requirement of making a great Getaway. As you begin to plan out your Getaway and you consider all of the many options for what your Getaway can be, start by asking yourself not only “what are my Sims doing here?” but also, “what kind of player am I?” What do I enjoy tinkering with and experimenting with the most? Getaways are not a feature we designed for you to play any one specific type of way – we’re excited to see you look inwards and ask, what kind of adventure awaits me? 

Source: The Sims Blog