Click to head to my Youtube video on the new Maxis Monthly and see the stair tools in action.
Today was the September 2019 Maxis Monthly, in celebration of the fifth anniversary of The Sims 4. Players on PC/Mac will receive the following on September 5, while console players will be getting it in a few weeks, most likely. A video version of the guide is Available here: Maxis Monthly September 2019 Livestream Summary
We started with build/buy assets – a new gnome drink holder table, frosted glass end-tables and lounge chairs for base game players. These were currently only available to players who owned Island Living.
These new planters are very nice, and snap together so you can make walls of them to decorate the outside (or inside) of your home.
Lighted fencing posts add a little glow to night-time on the deck, and angled lights can be used to illuminate parts of the house.
Items like this picnic table and new chairs have Sims-y patterns but do include regular, everyday looks so that you don’t grow sick of the plumbob patterns.
Sims can finally dress their Sims in traditional Muslim garb, with hijab for women and men getting kufi. The hijab is not connected to the outfit this Sim is wearing, but will rather go with any outfit. We assume it’s kind of a ‘hat’.
Next up was a new staircase tool. This is going to let you use the dongles to drag stairs into segmented blocks with turns and T-intersections however you see fit. You can go absolutely crazy with this thing, and it showed when SimGuruGraham later pulled up a house that had incorporated it extensively. Sims apparently pathfind on these just fine.
Finally, Arab inspired architecture was shown – new open archways, double doors and middle-eastern themed windows all feature heavily on this house that also has that plaster wall look. Someone tell me exactly what you’d call this if you feel so inclined.
The Gourmet Cooking skill is the answer. Seriously. You know, that skill that you never have your sims learn because who can be bothered, right? Well, turns out is more useful than you probably think. Specifically, the Epic Meal moodlet that unlocks at L7 of the Gourmet Cooking skill.
The Epic Meal moodlet reduces hunger decline by 20% for the duration of the moodlet which makes a noticeable difference. Basically, it means that Hunger hardly decreases at all for that 6 hours that the Epic Meal moodlet lasts. So, your sims stay full with an almost nonexistent hunger decline for 6 hours. That’s 6 hours of being full and with the added bonus of a Happy +3 mood.
This is a huge help for sims as a normal part of your game play, good for working sims who disappear off-lot into a rabbit-hole career, great for an active career and for taking your sims out and about off the home lot as they will stay almost completely full and happy for 6 hours. Then only once the moodlet goes does their hunger start to decline at the usual rate.
The best use of this Epic Meal moodlet must be managing your pregnant sims needs. A pregnant sim will stay full for those 6 hours of the moodlets duration with only a very slight drain on the Hunger bar allowing you to manage their Bladder and Energy needs much easier.
Leveling up Gourmet Cooking skill is easy and if you do it right, it wont take much more than a sim day. To start you’ll level up the Cooking Skill to level 5 where the Gourmet Cooking skill unlocks. Do this by always choosing the highest level food type each time, using the Homey Lot Trait and by keeping your sim Very Inspired.
Easy methods for staying Very Inspired is to Cloud Gaze and then have a few seashells around the kitchen with their auras enabled. These methods are pack dependent (Outdoor Retreat and Island Living) but there are many items in the game and many other methods for getting and staying Inspired. Once your sim hits Level 7 of the Gourmet Cooking style any excellent gourmet recipe will give the Epic Food moodlet. Once your sim has the moodlet don’t eat another meal of lesser quality or the Epic Meal moodlet will go and your sims Hunger drain will start again.
This week has been bittersweet. The guide and our forum turned 10 years old, as did my relationship with The Sims. As we tried to honor that day given our community has fostered many friendships, I was buried in server issues that many of you may have noticed early Sunday morning (US).
Thankfully I believe I have the troubling issues fixed. Though we may have a few more bumps, I don’t expect anything to be that bad (but then I didn’t in the first place). Regardless we are at the moment quite ready to cover Realm of Magic and excited to get the chance.
The news system is going to help a lot with that, and it’s set to light up a bit this week. Tuesday we have the Sims 4’s fifth anniversary acknowledgment and will have new objects and CAS assets coming to the game for all players. I’ll be covering that in a video guide, and I’ll also make a post here about what’s added so check back if you’re interested.
Friday The Sims team will be doing a livestream of The Sims 4 Realm of Magic, as well:
Save the date! Join us on Friday, September 6th @ 11AM PT for our #TheSims4 Realm of Magic Livestream w/ hosts, @SimGuruRomeo and @SimGuruNinja! We will uncover all the secrets and mysteries that Glimmerbrook has to offer. ✨https://t.co/scyPeyjn0f
We learned there’s a new death, and I’m looking forward to seeing how that plays out! It’s also possible for Sims who pursue spellcasting to overmax and learn every one of the pack’s 24 spells. We will do a thorough coverage of Realm of Magic on the evening of the 6th to summarize all the other tidbits we learn, and I’ll be sure to share some here as well for people who don’t like videos.
I apologize for the rockiness this past week, but do think we are in a better place now that some necessary improvements are in play. So hey that’s something. The best part is I picked up plenty of new tricks that save me time and let me do unique things on the site. When we build up enough articles, we’ll be enabling people to browse all the posts about a particular topic so things will be well organized and, if we succeed, very helpful.
If your sim likes Fruitcake, it is actually pretty useful. Fruitcake on the first bite gives a Happy+2 moodlet that lasts 4 hours. It only takes sims 4 bites to complete the serving making it a pretty fast meal to eat and fills around 3/4 of the Hunger bar.
The most useful feature of Fruitcake is that it never spoils and so is one of the easiest and best foods to have in a sims inventory. Perfect for eating away from the home lot. Top up your sims Hunger bar with a few harvestables and your sim will be full and Happy.
To get your sim to like Fruitcake, without cheating, is easy but can take some patience. Simply get your sims Homestyle Cooking Skill to Level 5 then the ability to cook a Gourmet meal unlocks. Fruitcake is a Level 1 recipe. With the use of the Homey Lot Trait this is easily and quickly done in your sims first day in a new save. Of course, if you save your Welcome Wagon Fruitcake then having to cook your own can wait.
Save your game before your sim takes a slice. If your sim likes Fruitcake, there’s nothing more to do so save your game to lock in the Hidden Trait of liking Fruitcake and continue playing.
If your sim does not like Fruitcake on the first taste quite without saving. Delete the localthumbcache.package file from your TheSims4 folder and hop back into your game. Repeat this until your sim receives the positive moodlet indicating that they now like Fruitcake.
If you want to use cheats to make your sim like Fruitcake. Enable ‘testingcheats on’ then type: ‘traits.equip_trait trait_hidden_likes_fruitcake’ and press enter.
The Sims 4 Seasons expansion now has options! Want to disable weather or make plants in season year-round? You can do so with my new Seasons Tuner Mod
Disable Seasons individually
Always Sunny! Set to Base Game Weather
Grow Year Round - Make Plants Always in Season!
Healthy Year Round - No more Winter twigs
Disable Color Changes - on ALL Plants & Trees
Disable Fall Leaves
Disable Ground Snow
Keep the Stuff You Paid For!
A Deeper Game
The past month, I've spent every day tinkering The Sims 4, making quality of life improvements, gameplay changes, and new difficulty settings for the game. If you'd like to learn more about my project, visit the post on Patreon where you can download it now.
I have much more to come, since you can actually write a few guides about this pack!
Calling all Blender Users
Blender has been incredibly useful in video production, so I made my own Physics and Simulation Improvement Addon that lumps a ton of unique tools into one compact interface.
Sims 4 Snowy Escape
The Sims 4 Snowy Escape launches November 13, 2020 and my coverage has started. Until I get my review ready, you can learn about the following:
There is a new platform tool in The Sims 4. There's also a new Sentiments system, but it'll take some time to create a guide to that. Players can also use rental lots in any world now by changing lot types of builds in manage worlds.
Best Mods in Sims 4
I've created a massive List of The Best Mods in The Sims 4 that should be very helpful to new players and those who have not yet explored modding and how much it can do for your gameplay.
The Sims 4 Seasons expansion now has options! Want to disable weather or make plants in season year-round? You can do so with my new Seasons Tuner Mod
Cottage Living Guide! 
