News

We have an update for you, Mayors. An update about our next Update, in fact – this Monday, April 22nd starting at 9pm GMT we'll be releasing Update 2.0, which contains a number of top-requested bug fixes and improvements. Here's the full list of changes included in the Update:

 

What's New

 

Mayors Mansion: Mayors will now drive their fancy cars to work. Mayors will take their helicopter, limo, or sports car if the modules are present.

HUD: Now colour-corrects when in a colour-blind mode.

Data map: Data maps show the filtered colour when a colour filter is enabled (unless in a colour-blind mode)

Fixes and Updates

 

Cities not Processing: Mitigates some of the issues that were causing cities not to process. We are continuing to work on and improve this issue.

Region Filters: Now sorts regions with available cities to the top

Invitations: Invitations to join a region should be sent and received more quickly.

Tourism: Fixes for unexplained fluctuation of tourists. Tourists more smartly counted on transit.

Cruise ships are now more effective at bringing medium and high wealth tourists in coastal cities.

New tourists will now decide to come into a city once leaving tourists reach train stations, bus depots, or cruise ship docs instead of waiting for those tourists to go out to the region first.

This change will reduce the downtime of tourist buildings.

Casinos: Casinos tuned so that Gambling will be a more profitable speciality. Players can bulldoze and replace existing casinos to see effects of tuning.

The larger casinos now invite more tourists into the city which helps keep them full.

Note that existing casinos will need to be replaced to take advantage of this change.

More Casinos: Raised module limit on Sci-Fi and Sleek Casinos to 6 modules.

Region Play: Cash gifts can now be received in a bankrupt city.

Education: Fixed school buses getting stuck at the high school. Existing Schools will fix themselves.

Education: Fixed school buses picking up students at neighbouring cities that didn't have school bus stops.

Education: Fix to more accurately track regional student population.

Education: Fix where kids leaving the school bus stop would teleport to the nearest pedestrian path instead of walking directly into the school.

Education: University wings now give the proper bonus.

Recycling: Fix for the Recycling Center where it would sometimes stop working, recycling services will visit other cities.

Air pollution: Fixed issue where air pollution would appear to come from nowhere. Fix issues where your regional air pollution would be reflected back into your box for a double penalty. 

• Fire Service: Fire Trucks don't clump, dispatch to fires more efficiently.

Water: Water pumps are now capable of pumping water from rivers at a larger radius so they can take better advantage of the water table in a city.

Disasters: Cool down for random disasters: Some players were getting hit too frequently with random disasters, this introduces a cool down where no random disasters will occur.

Trade: Fix for trade ports that suddenly stop shipping.

Transit: Street Cars and Buses go to high volume stops first.

Transit: A city with residents and public transit will now provide the accurate amount of workers and shoppers to its neighbours.

Transit: A transit vehicle stuck in a pick-up or drop off loop will now go back to a garage instead of trying to pick up more people.

Transit vehicles should recover automatically after the update. If players want to force the recovery, turn off the stops that are having looping issues, wait a few game hours, then turn them back on.

Transit: Neighbours buses will now come in lower numbers into the city and do a better job at picking up local passengers first.

Residential Tuning: Residential-only cities have failure state.

Buildings are prevented from going up in density when they don't have power or water.

The amount of happiness gained from low taxes, police, fire, and health outreach has been lowered.

Fixed some cases where buildings would not go abandoned when they should have.

Higher density residential buildings are no longer blocked from going abandoned due to not having enough money.

Happiness from low taxes does not double up every time it is given.

Losing happiness due to not having a job is more impaction.

Budgets: Fixed bug that prevented systems like fire, abandonment, garbage, and sewage from turning on when they were supposed to.

Audio: Fixes issue where audio will stop working after creating a large city or where phantom audio sounds play in a city.

Demolish: Fixes issue that occurred when players demolished buildings that had service vehicles, delivery vehicles, or agents out in the city or region. Previously, the agents would be in a state of limbo and would not recover when new buildings of that type were placed. This will no longer happen.

Because this is our first significant Update, we wanted to inform you in advance that we'll be taking down all servers for approximately two hours while changes are being issued. Choosing a time to issue a major Update is never easy, but after looking our peak player time, we've concluded 9pm GMT is the best window for us to make these improvements. As you can see from the list above, the wait will be worth it.

 

Thanks, Mayors! 

Greg from SimCookie noticed something funny in the new Sims 4 screen/concept art that was released today. It is similar to a concept art that was released prior to The Sims 2!

Also, be sure to check out Greg's coverage of The Sims 4 conference call he attended today. Unfortunately SNW was not invited to join in. So I promised Greg I would link to his site for any info!

SimGuruHydra has posted the Q&A for The Sims 4 on the official forums:

Sul Sul! Maxis and Electronic Arts today announced that The Sims 4 is currently in development at The Sims Studio for release on PC and Mac in 2014. The Sims 4 celebrates the heart and soul of the Sims themselves, giving players a deeper connection with the most expressive, surprising and charming Sims ever in this single-player offline experience. The Sims 4 encourages players to personalize their world with new and intuitive tools while offering them the ability to effortlessly share their creativity with friends and fans.

We know you all have many questions and we’re listening. Send them through to this post and we’ll do our best to respond as often as we can. Just know that we’re not quite ready to spoil all surprises yet, so keep an eye out for more information to come.

For now, here’s a list of some commonly asked questions that we wanted to share with you today.

Q: What can you tell us about The Sims 4?
A: The Sims 4 celebrates the heart and soul of the Sims themselves, giving players a deeper connection with the most expressive, surprising and charming Sims ever in this single-player offline experience. The Sims 4 encourages players to personalize their world with new and intuitive tools while offering them the ability to effortlessly share their creativity with friends and fans.

Q: How do I stay up to date with the latest info on The Sims 4?
A: Head on over to www.TheSims.com/TheSims4 and sign up for our newsletter to learn more!

Q: When will The Sims 4 be available?
A: The Sims 4 will be available worldwide in 2014.

Q: What platforms will the game be available on?
A: The Sims 4 will be available for PC and Mac.

Q: What will The Sims 4 be rated?
A: The Sims 4 is not yet rated by the ESRB, PEGI or other rating systems. We will update the website once we’ve received our rating.

Q: Will there be an online component for The Sims 4?
A:There will be additional fun and social gameplay elements for players who choose to go online (more to come on that later on) but the core game is designed to be played offline. It’s up to the player to choose how they want to play.

Q: Will The Sims 4 require a persistent online connection?
A: You will not require a persistent online connection to play The Sims 4.

Q: We noticed that the fans were amongst the first to receive this announcement, why did you go that route?
A: The Sims has always been about the fans. There are millions of them across social networks and it’s passion that keeps The Sims alive. It’s their creativity and devotion to The Sims that fuels our creativity, so it’s natural that we’d come to them first with the big news.

This is just the beginning for our fans. We’re bringing a select few into our inner circle and they’ll get special access to the development team and will have visibility into key parts of the game as it develops.

Q: Who are some of the people that are making The Sims 4?
A: The Sims 4 is currently in development at The Sims Studio in Redwood City, and the team making the game is comprised by veterans whose experience dates back to the inception of the franchise. We have folks like Robi Kauker, Lyndsay Pearson and Kevin Gibson who have been with the series since the beginning. Others such as Ray Mazza and Samantha Miceli have been with the team since The Sims 2. We can’t wait to introduce you to more of the team.

Q: What do the eyes in the image mean?
A: They say that the eyes are the window into the soul. Let’s just say that these eyes are a window into the future of The Sims 4. Stay tuned for more!

Q: What are the minimum hardware requirements for The Sims 4?
A: We are working to make the game accessible to as many players as possible. We will let you know once we’ve locked in the specs.

Q: Are you still developing content for The Sims 3?
A: Yes. We have a brand new world, Dragon Valley, coming out at the end of May. We have The Sims 3 Island Paradise shipping on June 25 and we have a Future-themed expansion arriving in Fall 2013. Beyond that, we continue to create content for The Sims 3 Store. 

The Sim Supply has posted the audio of the VIP conference call they participated in announcing the Sims 4. A select group of fan sites got the first official word on the game, even before Maxis talked to the press. The full, official announcement will follow in about an hour. In the call Rachel of Maxis says the fansites are a big inspiration for The Sims 4. Fans will get early access - fan first - to the game until the release. The team working on the game - over 100 people - is largely familiar from the Sims 3 games, such as Lyndsay Pearson who's even worked on the original Sims game and Robi Kauker originally created Simlish and is still onboard. The call continues with a bit of history of the franchise, from the original new game, to the Sims 2 with generations, the Sims 3 with new traits and deeper personality and now The Sims 4. The way Sims behave, especially Sim-to-Sim interactions are a core aspect of the game, as well as new CAS, Build and Buy modes. By the sounds of it, the VIP group is also invited to visit the studios in August (third week, roughly simultaneously with GamesCom) to check out the game. More information will follow later tonight and in the near future.