You can see that the creators of The Sims 4 are also trying to develop those elements that have been in the game for some time.
Neighborhood Stories is one of the more elaborate elements of the game that were recently introduced to The Sims 4. Recall that the update that adds new features took place in November and despite a few bugs it was rather warmly received by players.
Thanks to Neighborhood Stories, the lives of our sim neighbors have grown significantly, and we as players have also gained the ability to control their stories. Since then, our neighborhood colleagues have been able to call our Sims and discuss various life changes or ask for advice, and they can have some impact on their lives.
However, the Neighborhood Stories had some bugs. Often our Sims received phone calls from neighbors who are long gone, or from friends who asked about getting married, even though they have long since been married. Now the creators of The Sims 4 are coming with a big update that will not only fix the basic bugs but also add some new and interesting features.
Neighborhood Stories with a big update
Nate is one of the main developers working on the game from Electronic Arts. Most Simmers know him well because he can be found very often on The Sims social media and on Inside Maxis streams. Now Nate has shared his fairly extensive description of the Neighbor Stories update with players. What can we learn from his entry?
Neighborhood Stories System
The first major addition is life changes for all Neighbor Sims, with or without relationships to the active household. The new Neighborhood Stories System opens up interesting, autonomous changes all over the world.
“What changes?” you might ask. Neighbor Sims everywhere may now:
- Adopt young Sims into their household, aged between infant and toddler.
- Become pregnant with their Significant Other, and eventually deliver. Family-Oriented Sims are more likely to do this, while Noncommittal Sims are less likely. If a Sim or their SO Hates Children, they will never do this.
- Some Sims may instead adopt a dog or cat (requires The Sims 4 Cats and Dogs).
- Join and leave careers. Sim Traits heavily influence these decisions. Elder Sims may decide to retire.
- Households can move into and out of lots.
- Die in different kinds of accidents, depending on risk factors such as Age, Traits, and Career.
All these life changes let Neighbor Sims have richer, fuller lives that evolve over time. They grow up in a family, get jobs, move around, raise children, and eventually die (possibly before their time!)
Configuring Neighborhood Stories
A critical part of the Neighborhood Stories System is a set of new gameplay controls that allow you to tune which life changes Neighbor Sims can and cannot have.
It all starts in the Manage Households panel:
You choose how Neighborhood Stories affect your game, so the Neighborhood Stories System can be configured in a few ways:
- Independent configurations for My Households vs. Other Households. For each group of households in a particular tab, you can choose to enable or disable each type of life change and even disallow all Neighborhood Stories for those households. This provides a fast and easy way to decide what happens to played households in My Households, versus Other Households out in the world. (Rotational players, we see you!)
- By default, Neighborhood Stories is enabled for Other Households and disabled for My Households. Above all else, we want to avoid unintended changes to long-running games that we know you’ve put a lot of love into!
When you’re ready to configure Neighborhood Stories, use this button under the respective tabs for My Households and Other Households.
- Household-specific configurations. Want even more control? Do you have a vision for which households need which types of life changes? You can make it happen! Each and every household can have its own configuration, allowing you to tailor life changes that make sense to that household’s storyline.
- Global enable/disable setting. If life changes happening all over the world are just not your thing, that’s okay! Neighborhood Stories can be entirely disabled under Game Options using the “Reset Custom Configurations” Button.*
*Neighbor Sim friends will still occasionally call asking for advice about life changes unless your Sim’s phone is on silent.
Like other game options, Neighborhood Stories configurations exist on a per-save basis. Because each of your saves has its own settings, you can switch back and forth between them without having to re-configure anything. Just load up and let the stories roll!
What Are Neighbor Sims Up To?
One last thing to note: These life changes are happening out in the world, beyond the active Household. This means that sometimes your Sims will never come in contact with the results of these life changes! Still, even if your Sims don’t see it, maybe you want to know everything that’s happened!
On any mailbox, try the new Check Recent Neighborhood Stories interaction. You can keep tabs on all the recent Neighborhood Stories. If you’re so inclined, use that information to visit the Neighbor Sims and see their life changes in person!
I hope both you and your Sims will be delighted and surprised by what happens in the world around you!