The Sims™ 4 Eco Lifestyle: Official Reveal Trailer Updated 05/19/20

[sdhoey]

It is official for all those who wished to take their lovers to a dumpster, pull them in and make sweet woohoo in the dumpster, now you can. I love new woohoo locations. Yes, this one sounds like you will need to visit a doctor to get a few vaccines and antibiotics after, but it is a new woohoo location never the less. This pack is so grungy, maybe I will finally get my fleas I always wanted. Yes, I know better than to hold my breath, but compared to dumpster woohoo, a few fleas are positively sanitary. Here is hoping.

For some reason this made me laugh out loud that my dog looked at me like I was crazy. LOL

Thank you.

Here is the Gameplay trailer blog.

https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/news/eco-lifestyle-gameplay

I knew I was missing something, Thanks my friend. I also linked it in the OP.

[scoed]

Sims arriving in Evergreen Harbor have their choice of three different neighborhoods. The community of Grims Quarry is best off, environmentally speaking, though grimy and cluttered with waste. Still, its clean air accentuates its appeal when compared to the middling Conifer Station and rundown Port Promise. Once Sims start making an effort, though, each of these neighborhoods transforms. Go all-in on the industrial-chic aesthetic by turning an old shipping container lot into your new home in Port Promise, or take a leisurely stroll atop of the old train station’s parkway in Conifer Station when Evergreen Harbor finally lives up to its name.

This excerpt from the gameplay blog makes me wonder if each neighborhood in the game environmental status is tracked separately. If so it can be a real pain depending on the system to keep every neighborhood clean if there is a gradual decline when visiting and not actively promoting a clean world during that visit. This makes me nervous. I really wish they would give us some details on this.

I guess I can wait 38 hours or so but each neighborhood having it's own pollution level and maintenance can be a mess. Good thing we can shut it all down. But I don't want to do so just to go beach combing as a family, or have a teen tour a college or two. That sounds annoying.

[MarianT]

Reading that excerpt, I got the impression that the pollution would improve all over the world, rather than in different neighborhoods. But as you say, we'll find out more tomorrow.

[Brian_Z]

Reading that excerpt, I got the impression that the pollution would improve all over the world, rather than in different neighborhoods. But as you say, we'll find out more tomorrow.

Yes, I know I always have worlds I rarely visit from game to game.  I wouldn't want to get everything all cleaned up, and then have a reason to visit say Willow Creek for the first time this save, and find that it's a dump.  And cleaning and maintaining every world separately would turn into the only thing you do anymore.

[oshizu]

Oooh, I wonder how many new lots we'll get? *rubs hands together in anticipation
While watching the trailer, I cracked up when the narrator claimed she needed to improve her eco-footprint than relocated from a hovel to a 3-story eco-friendly house with all the sparkly-new build items.
If she could afford to build that house, why live in her grungy hut in the first place? It was an absurd transition which made me LOL.

I'm hyped about tomorrow's livestream but usually never make it through all of a 2-hr stream. *checks the time again

[mousef]

Ayeeee the tea was true! Moar apartments! 15 lots total!

As for the free update...
Inventory. Management.
I've been waiting for this for 6 years.

[MarianT]

Probably the best livestream I've seen. I would encourage people to watch because they covered a lot of material. There is definitely enough for an expansion pack here.

Coming in the patch:
Ladders (toddlers and pets can't climb)
Inventory management
Split bills to reflect utilities
Firef…

Evergreen Harbor has 3 neighborhoods with 3 community lot spaces, a bar, and 9 residential lots, 2 of which are apartment buildings that can house 2 households each. Each neighborhood has its own eco-footprint -- industrial, neutral, or green. In other worlds, you'll get smog, but not trash strewn around.

3 Community lots that are decided by voting -- Maker lot, Market lot, and Community garden. It's up to the Sims in the neighborhood, but your Sims can influence them.
Neighborhood Action Plans are different -- 7 or 8, maybe more. In other worlds, your Sims can vote for them at the mailbox. Again, you can influence but it's how everyone votes.

New traits: maker, green fiend, freegan, and recycling disciple
2 new aspirations -- one to make things and one to live green.

Candlemaking -- Children can make candles and they burn down.
Fizzy drink maker
Recycler
Fabricator
Bug houses -- bombardier beetles, beetles, grubs, and crickets

Civil designer career has 2 branches
Freelance crafter

Lots of support for off-the-grid living.

[scoed]

@MarianT I agree. I will be honest, in spite of the fact I bought it, I was not looking forward to this EP. Now I can't wait. The coverage was excellent. The pack looked deep. The pack has a global feel like seasons. Four new CAS traits, are coming. Four. A new lot trait, and a new lot type are coming. How and what you build will actually matter. An active voting system where you can actually loose looks so cool. They added actual variety of play from the looks of things. I never had a livestream affect my opinion of a pack so much for the better before.

The thing I am most excited for is coming free a sortable inventory. That is a huge game breaker. We needed this.

I also love the flies. You can make friends with them, prevent them or they can kill you. I wonder if woohooing in a dumpster can anger the flies. I am going to find out. Things I will make my Sims do in the name of science. If not I guess I will get my sim to die to flies some other way. I will add that ghost to my collection.

One thing I was looking forward to that I didn't see is new recycling containers. Kinda shocking really.

[scoed]

OK they missed some cool things. Like a new harvestable.

https://twitter.com/SimGuruGeorge/status/1263587640554602496

[Brian_Z]

So a bunch of rather bulky crafting stations.  Looks like if you want to get into the crafting part, it's advisable to stuff the ballot box and get the community lot turned into the Maker's Space.

[scoed]

@Brian_Z it is true the crafting objects are bulky. Something I am not a fan of, it is typical for The Sims 4 as a whole. Look at things like the cupcake baking machine. It is huge. The science objects of a microscope and telescope. They are utterly ridiculous. Home versions are never like that in real life. At least give the 3D printer thing prints furniture it makes sense for it to be large. Same for the other crafting stations except the candle making one. I can forgive the bulkiness of the crafting stations as in real life they are bulky.

[scoed]

OK now we have had the Deep Dive Livestream, both blog posts, both trailers, a great many SimGuru tweets from EA, and the Game Changers are allowed to show their coverage, it is time to start talking about our plans for the pack.

Are you buying the pack?

If you are, what are you going to do first?

What are you most excited about and not so excited about?

What are your opinion of the pack as a whole?


I will start.

I am buying the pack. I already have in fact. I always was going to as I am a Sims completionist, but my opinion did a 180. I bought it to have it but almost didn't. Now I am excited about the pack.

As to what I plan on doing first, that is less clear. Normally I dive into play first. But I am so excited about the concept of the new community voted lot I am excited to build one. I have this idea of making one lot that depending on what is active that you can work on every skill, just not all at once as each lot type will have certain skills. Sims 4 skill items are so bulky that having access  to them all is a pain in your sims residence. At the same time learning the new game play systems is my go to and I really want to just dive into the main game play. Then the major overhaul of off the grid is also calling. I am so torn.

I am so excited about the voted on community lots. It makes me want to build and I am more of a gameplay player then a builder. Community voted NAPs excites me as well. Something I have to work for that I don't have perfect control over is so cool. I always love new traits. Sims 4 so needed more of them. But voted stuff wins. What am I not excited about? Lack of recycling bins bugs me. Combined with a recycled recycling theme, just bothers me. I hated the marketing of this pack. It almost talked me out of buying this pack. Worse marketing ever. I also don't like most of the CAS items.

Over all I am not excited about the theme, but I am thinking it looks very well done. I love how it has global reach. It seems to have plenty of cross pack play. It also looks deep. The voting system looks deep as sims will need to work to get what they want. Over all I am excited. New traits, great build/buy items, and the interconnectedness of the game play has me wanting this now. I am excited. Well except for townies that will be wearing the ugly CAS items. Not looking forward to that. Some of those clothes are just bad. Well they will make my homeless dream sim much more convincing as a lot of it looks like it was scavenged straight out of a dumpster. Speaking of which I am so looking forward to the dumpster. Dumpster woohoo is just so trashy. Who can blame the flies for going lethal after everyone rubbing their parts all over the flies home? Death by flies? Yes please.

[sdhoey]

I have preordered it and when I get it, I have to start testing it and seeing how it's gonna play into the Immortal Dynasty.

[Brian_Z]

Definitely getting it.  And definitely stuffing the ballot box for the "Free Love" NAP lol.  Goes perfectly with the... mods I play with.  Very likely going to have a new sim starting with zero funds and an empty lot, surviving through dumpster diving and other scrounging methods.

And yes, I agree about the CAS items.  It looks more like an abject poverty theme.  Do eco conscious people dress like that?  No, they pay extra for normal looking clothes that came with a tag that had a buzzword on it.  And the marketing was appalling.  Yes, the game is rated Teen, but that isn't who plays it.  The kids are busy blowing each other up in multiplayer battle games.

[scoed]

@Brian_Z That sounds fun. I want to do that too. Make sim, put sim on an empty lot, use cheats to reduce cash to $0. Then avoid any easy simoleon generating methods like beachcoming, copypasto, a job and the like. Then slowly build up a house with items scrounged in the dumpsters and built with the woodworking table, and the new skills. That sounds fun. Only income is from dumpster diving and selling stuff made from dumpster diving.