New gameplay trailer shares more information on upcoming expansion pack
The Sims 4 is speeding towards the next expansion pack “Businesses & Hobbies” and they’ve released the gameplay trailer highlighting major features coming March 6. Here’s a breakdown of the features revealed today.
Running Your Small Business
While the trailer did focus on the business side of “Businesses & Hobbies” it was no shortage of learning more about what your sims can do when they open for business - see what I did there?
The new pack comes with two new lot types: small business residential and small business venue lot. You can designate certain areas that customers can’t reach with “employees only” or “residential.” Making it easier to keep sims off your computer and in your space if you choose to combine your home and business.
Players gain access to the new small business menu where you can choose your logo, name, and the customers you want to attract. You can even set up business activities with custom presets or use the game’s default. See the list of the default presets below.
Bar
Gym
Library
Lounge
Museum
Park
Pool
Nightclub
Pottery studio
Shop
Tattoo shop
The new small business perks UI resembles the same UI from the vampires and fame system. No more information on the perks themselves but there are 15 in total and are divided into three categories: Dreamer, Neutral, and Schemer.
Using particular perks can have positive or negative effects. They can influence your “business alignment.” Which can “affect interactions with customers” or even personal relationships.
A welcome surprise is the ability to hire family members for your business. While it only lets you hire three, you have more control over their salaries and assign 5 tasks like “care for little ones, “be romantic” or “clean.”
The new ticket kiosk lets players charge by the hour or set one-time entry fees. You’ll have to keep in mind that prices and interactions contribute to customer satisfaction.
While a minor detail, players no longer have to be worried about the business being owned by the household. With the new expansion, the small businesses are owned by individual sims and you can choose to transfer to someone else or sell it at your leisure.
New interactions such as bartering, letting you earn rare collectibles instead of simolens, investing in Simocoin to maximize profits, or even setting things a blaze to claim the insurance are additional ways of running a business. Take a look at the screenshot below of the small business pie menu.
Skills, Classes & More
If you missed it, the trailer went more in-depth on the new skill classes and mentoring. It also previewed the new skill mastery perks which are perks that sims can achieve by “persistent practice and use of skills.” These perks can allow sims to build their skills faster, make their creations better, and even allow elders to bestow their mastery skills to younger sims who are learning the same craft.
There isn’t just one way to teach sims a skill, there are two. Sims can host lectures which they can do anywhere or they can teach monetized classes. The trailer showed a sim holding a lecture in an outdoor space teaching knitting which doesn’t require a business. However, classes are taught in a business.
Sims earn simoleons, in-game currency, at the end of the classes but the attendees can choose not to pay if things “don’t go well.” You will need to complete goals to help things along. Goals are for both the teacher and the student.
Players can also choose a less formal way of making simoleons with the mentorship option. They can even choose to do it free of charge, but who wants to do that?
Hobbies, Pottery & Tattooing
A bit more detail was unveiled about the new pottery and tattooing skills.
Sims can make functional and decorative pottery pieces. And just like real pottery making, use glazes and set them into a kiln. You can also repair broken pottery.
Advancing the tattoo skill will unlock “stamps, stencils, designs, and the ability to do touch-ups." You can even do dedication tattoos where sims can choose someone specific and tattoo a piece of their body in honor of someone else.
If it doesn’t go well, you can also remove tattoos.
The new tattoo paint mode is similar to what the Cats & Dogs expansion pack first brought. You can layer tattoos, unlock presets, and even place designs others made on the gallery.
The new world comes with Hobby meetups, where sims can practice or learn new skills. This will either be a weekly festival or an event similar to what came with the Life & Death expansion pack.
…and so much more
Players can choose a new aspiration “esteemed entrepreneur” and two new traits “idealist and shady” in create-a-sim. No information on whether these are the only new items.
The trailer also showed that sims don’t have to have a storefront. There is also the possibility of having a “stall.” The Home Chef Hustle pack unlocked the ability to fully use the selling table, but it appears now payers can have their stalls which were first introduced with City Living.
The possibilities of what business you can make seem to open up more with this new expansion. Even a cat cafe is an option as shown in the gameplay trailer.
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