Thanks to the EA Game Changers Network we had the opportunity to participate in a live stream with SimGuruJill, SimGuruMorgan and SimGuruGeoff.
They got to show off the new expansion pack The Sims 4 Island Living, and we got to ask questions about the pack. We were not allowed to make any screenshots or record footage, so the screenshots we use in this post are ones already seen on Origin and during the EA Play live stream of The Sims.
Base Game
Before we head off into the wonderfull world Sulani, there are a few awesome announcements related to the expansion pack, but that will be available for everyone in the game
Lounge chairs will be available in base game! There is 1 set that will be available for everyone. And guess what? Lounge chairs are portable!
There will be 2 new lot traits.
Off the grid – No electricity, no water, limited internet. And best of all, no bills. So if you are playing the off the grid challenge, this will be perfect!
Clothing optional – It’s exactly what the name says, with this, Sims will consider clothing optional, and you will see Sims walking around in the nude (of course still with the blur)
The teen part time jobs, guess what, no longer just for teens! In the next update they will be available for adults as well.
Also, they have added a randomize trait button to CAS! And the randomize button will also be available when a Sim ages up.
The Sims 4 Island Living
Now to get into the good stuff! Lets start talking about this new expansion pack. We will cover mermaids, the world, open ocean, dolphins, new activites, new careers and much more!
Sulani
The world looks gorgeous, it’s a tropical looking island that is inspired by Polynesia and Pacific Islands.
Something that is unique to Sulani, is that you can swim in the open waters! We’ve seen this in the trailer of course. This is restricted to Sulani, but the door hasn’t been closed on bringing this to other worlds as well. We just have to wait and see.
Lots and building
The island has 3 neighbourhoods: Mua Pel’Am (natural island, 5 lots), Lani St. Taz (uptown, 3 lots) and Onan’Ali Town (has 6 lots).
In the world there are 14 lots total divided over these neighbourhoods. And there is 1 64×64 lot. The lots in general looks fair in size, didnt see any really small ones.
There are different types of lots too. Water lots and just regular lots. The water lots means you can build over the water!
A new venue type is also introduced, Beach venues!
If you have The Sims 4 Seasons installed, Sulani will have a mild weather, with an occasional tropical storm. And Mermaids have the ability to summon a thunderstorm.
Water activities
Kids to elder can swim in the ocean, and toddlers can sit and splash around in shallow waters. But if you have The Sims 4 Cats and Dogs, then your dogs can also swim in the ocean of Sulani.
Sulani is also home to lots of sea creatures. One of them being dolphins. To meet them, you should go to one of the buoys in the deeper waters. You can build a friendship with dolphins, and once your bond gets better, the dolpins are willing to do tricks, for some small fish you have in your inventory. It’s not guaranteed they will perform the trick though.
One of the tricks dolphins can do when you have a great relationship with them, is send them to the bottom of the ocean to look for treasure!
Besides swimming and diving in the water (where else), you can also snorkle, buy an Aquazip (Jetski, and it can be renamed, if you like Aquasled beter), or a sail boat. Or just leisurely lay around in a lounge floatie. Diving is a rabit hole like feature though and wasn’t shown to us,
But there are also dangers in the waters. On very rare occasions you might encounter a shark! And if you stay in the water for too long with sharks around, they might pull you under, and your Sim can drown.
The fitness skill has always been tied to swimming, but now plays a bigger role. If you improve your fitness, your Sim is able to learn a new swim style, that is faster. Higher fitness skill also helps with doing trick on the Aquazips.
Mermaids
As they have shown a little bit about mermaid in the EA Play live stream, they told us that mermaids are fully playable and editable in CAS.
You can pick out a tail, choose between different swatches, and female mermaids also have a few different ‘tops’ to choose from.
So you can create your own mermaid off the bat in CAS, but you can also get new mermaids with genetics. So your children can be mermaids too. They won’t start to get a tail until they are teens though.
And there is a game play way to become, and unbecome a mermaid. Suggestion, look for that special Kelp.
Now, mermaids have a few benefits. They no longer need hygiene, but instead need hydration. They can get their bar filled up by obviously swimming in the ocean, but also by taking a bath, and yes the tail does appear when they do that, drink water, or even soak a little bit of rain.
Mermaids are the fastest swimmers, for obvious reasons.
They also get powers. They can bond more easily with dolphins, they have a siren call, which has different tones for different effects. And they have some good and mischievous powers too.
If your Sim has the good trait, it won’t be able to do the mischievous actions, if it has the evil trait, it won’t be able to do the good actions. If your Sim has neither traits, then it will be able to do them all.
Careers
There are actually a few careers coming with this expansion pack.
Fisherman, lifeguard and dive instructor are 3 of the new part time jobs, that adults can do. Teens can become lifeguards, not sure about the other jobs, but we will find out later.
These part time jobs have morning and evening shifts.
Fishing in general gets an overhaul, there will be new ways to fish, brand new fish and even new spots in other worlds as well. This last one make me think this might come in the update rather than just the expansion pack. New ways to fish are for example the Fish trap and a high skill cast.
Are you a good swimmer and you like to help other Sims, or perhaps just enjoy being on the beach? Then Lifeguard is for you. Also a part time job, and seems to come with a baywatch type of uniform.
But if the under water world is more you thing, then you can also become a dive instructor. We don’t know much about this yet.
What we do know is that you can take under water pictures! So get those tropical fish in your picture frame!
And then there is the full time job, conservationist. If you like helping out and preserving the eco system, that’s awesome! Now you Sims can too.
With this job you can have a positive impact on the island.
Changing the island goes in stages. And you will see visual effects of those stages. In the final stage there are some very beautiful effects, like more butterflies, illuminated algeas in the ocean that light up, more sea turtles show up, and there’s even a chance for a special hatching event.
Game play
Of course this island isn’t just any island, it brings a lot of game play. We’ve mentioned quite a bit above already, with mermaids, water activities and careers. But there is more.
Elementals
Elementals are spirits, the ancients, that care a lot about the island. If you take care of the island, they are very happy. But if you are bad to the island, they may not approve. The elementals weren’t shown in this live stream though, so we have no extra information.
Festivals
Every day on the island there will be a festival on a venue, but they have different themes. A fisher festival, a pot luck, or some other theme. Look for the balloons and you find where the festival is.
Waterfall
The waterfall isn’t just pretty decor of the island. It actually has a few functions! For one, you can shower in it. Really great for off the grid gameplay. Attract frogs to it, but it’s also a new place to Woohoo! But watch out, your Sims might not be too fond of the frogs that you attracted there, and feel a bit creeped out. Giving them the embarrassed moodlet “Eyes Everywhere”
The waterfall can be found in Mua Pel’am. Look around carefully there, because there might be more hidden
Volcano
On the island there is a volcano, because nearly every island is created by vulcanos.
There is also a new lot trait, Volcanic activity
There are different levels of activity, where the highest one is eruption and lava bombs falling from the sky. These lava bombs can’t kill your Sims though. But they are hot, and if you Sim touches them, they might catch fire.
Harvestables
We don’t have a lot of information about harvestables, except there are a few new ones.
Coconuts, Kava, Pineapples and Taro.
They’re all integrated into the gardening system, so your gardener Sim has new products to discover with this expansion pack.
for Kava we know this is used to make a new island drink.
Tanning
Tanning is a new feature coming with The Sims 4 Island Living, but can be done in all other worlds if you own the pack (sorry, we reported otherwise earlier, we just misunderstood)
Something that is really cool though, is that the clothing your Sim is wearing affects the tan lines. so if they have a t-shirt on, you’ll see that back in the tanned areas.
And the details are really fine too, with the little bow know of a bikini top, you see that back in the tanlines as well.
Tanning is an activity that is specific for certain items.
The lounge chair, lounge floatie and beach towels can be used for sunbathing and are portable items.
Be careful not to stay out in the sun for too long though, as your Sims can get sunburned. when your Sims are Sunkissed, they will get a tan, and beyond that, will be sunburned.
And you can prank Sims who are sunbathing, which can leave awkward tan lines, like a hand print, writing, stripes.
Sims with “Fantasy” skin colours, like green, blue and purple, don’t get tan. Only the natural skin tones can tan.
CAS
I haven’t listed really specifics of CAS items, and I think that will show better when we actually review the expansion pack. But there are new traits and aspirations we can share about.
A few things that we did notice though, is that there seem to be new tattoos. Which would be very fitting of the theme.
And of course a lot of beach wear and tropical island wear.
Aspiration and Traits
There is 1 new aspiration, beach life, and it can be found under the location aspiration group.
Did not catch what the perks were for that aspiration sadly.
And there are 2 new traits!
Child of the Ocean and Child of the Island.
Conclusion
This is a lot of information and we haven’t even covered all of it. We will go more in depth with the actual review of The Sims 4 Island Living, so stay tuned.
We are going to be covering more topics and are able to show you better screenshots that are not just from the trailers.
The Sims 4 Island Living will release June 21st for PC/MAC and July 16th for Console!
We would like to thank the EA Game Changers Network for giving us the opportunity to join this live stream.
Wonderfully written!