The Sims 4 – July Base Game updates

Thanks to the EA Game Changers program I had the opportunity to play the new expansion pack The Sims 4 Cottage Living for about a week.
I only had Base Game and Cottage Living, and the software I had is not yet final, so there might be slight changes before release. Because the new pack also needed the new update, I also looked for new update features! So here they are
To return to the main post for The Sims 4 Cottage Living click here

User Interface changes

There are some changes to the User Interface (UI). The notebook has been removed from the Phone, and now has its own spot in the UI on the left of the phone icon.
And you’ll notice something else next to the phone as well. The calendar has been made base game. Previously this was a feature that came with The Sims 4 Seasons, but they have detached it from that. You can’t make any holidays with the base game calendar, that is still a Seasons feature, but you can organize events and see birthdays in the calendar.

Pond tool

To make room for the new pond options, the UI for build mode has also been changed. Instead of just the shovel, there is now a pond icon for it as well.
All terrain manipulation is under that icon now, so terrain paint (which now has more brush sizes!), the manipulation tools, as well as a water tool.

And not only that, but also a tree trunk. This is where you will find all water/pond feature aside from the terrain options. Here you can find plants like lilies (frogs can jump up here), a tree trunk (where a turtle can show up), and even some swimming swans, ducks, fish and even an alligator. Play around with the tools to see what they do.
The animals don’t show up in build mode, you will see a sort of spawner. When you go into live mode, hit play (take a sec for it to show up) you can see the actual effect.
There is also an “open water section” in the outdoor category added when sorted by room. You can find items like the floaties in there if you have Island living, and other usable water items.
And you can also find a ‘Fishing allowed sign’ item, so you can even fish in the ponds you create yourself. the catch is (pun intended) that you do have to add the fish yourself. And you can only add fish you have actually caught before. so if you caught a rare fish before, you can totally add only that one, and that will be the only fish your Sims can catch there. Money making machine!

Cooking Together

After the patch you can now cook together; even Children can join in.
You can have a Sim start cooking and ask other Sims join in. Or you can start the interaction by clicking on a counter and select “Cook together with…” where you can select multiple Sims to join in. Sims will only do visual interactions (like mixing) if there is enough counter space.

Gardening actions for kids and toddlers

Children can now help out with your gardening. They build their mental skill by watering the plants and weeding it. Children can’t harvest until they reach mental level .. 4 I believe (will update with correct level), and they can’t fertilize or spray bugs, for ‘health’ reasons.
Toddlers don’t actually garden, but they can “Play” and “Talk” to plants.

Lot Challenges

Lot Challenges are introduced because the lot traits didn’t do some of the challenge justice. Some players just want to make it as difficult as possible, and just 3 trait slots for it was just not cutting it. So Off-the-Grid is a lot challenge you can select beside giving lot traits.
You can select as many lot challenges as you want, there is no limit. For base game there is only 1 lot challenge, but The Sims 4 Cottage Living will add 2 more, and some of the other pack ‘traits’ will also be converted to the challenges instead.

Gallery – Move objects on

Previously if you placed a lot from the gallery that used a lot of Move Objects on (MOO) and you didn’t have the cheat activated in your game, some items would disappear for ‘overlapping’ issues. That is why you see a lot of #MOO in Gallery descriptions to alert players the cheat was used.
Now, the lots will be placed as the creator has intended, without having to activate the cheat yourself. So lots will always place with all items!

Focus/lock camera

You know how when a Sim in your relationship panel is already “nearby” but you don’t know where? Not an issue anymore. you can now click on them in the relationship panel, and if they are nearby, you can choose to either focus the camera on them, or lock the camera on them (the camera follows them if they are moving).