With every Expansion Pack released for The Sims 4, there’s free new content added to the base game, and with the impending arrival of Lovestruck, things haven’t changed. A new update has just arrived in the base game. A lot of stuff has been added. Here’s everything that came with this update.
For the full patch notes, you can visit the official page at The Sims 4 website.
Relationship Options
Since this update coincides with the romance-themed Lovestruck Expansion, it makes sense to include some changes to relationships in the base game. Many of these can be viewed, as well as adjusted, in Create-A-Sim (CAS).
Relationship Boundaries
In the base game of The Sims 4, Sims can now have Relationship Boundaries. This affects how easily they can get jealous. In Create-A-Sim, this feature can be found and edited in the Gender and Sexual Orientation tab. You can set whether your Sims get jealous from Physical Romance, Non-Physical Romance, and WooHoo. You can also decide whether you want your Sims to possibly later change their minds about what makes them jealous.
Note that for pre-existing Sims, all four of these questions will be set to Yes.
Romantic Boundaries can be set in Create-A-Sim.
Hide Relationships
Overtime, as you play The Sims 4, you might notice the Relationship panel filling up with lots of Sims you’ve met. Once you’ve met them, they’ll be on that panel for the rest of their lives, whether they’re friends, foes, or simply acquaintances you haven’t spoken to in an age. If you find the Relationship panel getting unnecessarily cluttered, there is a way to make things better. While you cannot delete Sims from the panel, you can at least hide them. Simply select the Sim and choose the new Hide Relationship option and they’ll disappear.
Hide those Sims in the Relationship panel who aren’t important anymore.
Updated Relationship Names
The Sims is a big advocate for inclusivity, which is why certain relationship names have been given an update. From now on, “husband” and “wife” is known as “spouse”, “fiancé” and “fiancée” is “engaged”, and “boyfriend” and “girlfriend” is “partner”.
Relationship statuses now have new names.
Setting Partners As Relationship Status
Until now, the only way for two Sims to become partners was through playing the game. Now though, you can set the relationship status to Partner in Create-A-Sim.
New Create-A-Sim Content
There’s nothing like new Create-A-Sim content in a free update, including the following:
Eyelashes
While eyelashes aren’t exactly new to The Sims 4, their own category is thanks to this update. Eyelashes can now be changed individually from eye shapes. The base game update has even added two free eyelashes to try out.
Eyelashes now have their own category in Create-A-Sim. You can find it alongside the other Make-Up options.
Option to Apply-to-All-Outfits
If you’re tired of wanting to apply the same hairstyle to each outfit and have to do it manually, there’s a new option in CAS to save time. With the Apply-to-All button, you can assign the same hairstyle to all outfit types. Not just hairstyles, but all kinds of CAS options, such as accessories and make-up. Note that at this stage, you cannot mass remove something with this option. For example, if your Sim has been assigned a make-up for all outfits, you can only change it, not get rid of it completely (unless you do it individually for each category).
The Apply to All option will be a big time saver in CAS.
Dark and Lovely Hairstyle Partnership
There are some free new hairstyles to look out for in The Sims 4 base game, including one courtesy of the collaboration with Dark and Lovely.
The Dark and Lovely hairstyle.
New Nails
Want new nails? Here they are! With this update, you get some new nail styles, such as coffin nails, French tips, and neutral palettes.
If you like nails, there are more styles and colors to choose from.
Curved Pools
Swimming pools have been a part of The Sims 4 for a long time now, but one thing that’s been longed for is curved pools. Now, we’ve got them! There’s even a cool new wall light just for curved corners.
At last, curved pools!
Live Mode Additions
Let’s look into what’s new you can expect when playing your Sims in The Sims 4.
Relationship Interactions
As you play The Sims 4 and get to know other Sims, you’ll eventually unlock unique interactions such as Ask to Join Household and Become Best Friends. These weren’t always easy to find in the original interaction options, but now, these type of interactions have their own section called Relationships…
The new Relationship interactions will make certain options easier to find and access.
Safe Music Streaming
What Safe Music Streaming means is that when you are livestreaming The Sims 4, you don’t want to get bothered by copyright issues from the music you play through the game. Therefore, this new option, Safe for Streaming, ensures that only licensed music will play during your streams, saving you some headache.
Make streaming easier with this new option under Music.
Neighborhood Stories
Neighborhood Stories have been around for a while now in The Sims 4, and with this update, two new options are added for NPC households: Friendship Changes and Romantic Changes. You can decide whether Sims from households out of your control make their own choices when it comes to relationships, such as breaking up with Sims, becoming best friends, or getting back together.
Decide whether Sims outside your control get a choice in relationships.
Conversation Panel
Just a minor thing to note, but you might notice from now on that the conversation panel at the top of your screen while your Sims are conversing with others that it looks a little different.
From now on, the conversation panel at the top of the screen will look a little different.
Bug Fixes
So that’s all the freebies out of the way. Now it’s time for those all-important bug fixes. Make sure to check out the official patch notes to see what all the bug fixes are this time. Just to give you a heads-up, it’s a very long list!
