Apparently EA was feeling generous as the long-awaited skin tone update arrived a day early! More than 100 new skin tones have been added to The Sims 4 base game, and on top of that, each tone comes with a slider to customize your looks even further.
If you are happy with the skin tone you’ve created and want to keep using it in the future, you can save the color swatch by hovering over the initial color you used and press the + button. You can also delete these swatches later on.
To make it easier to differentiate different skin colors, swatches are now devided in four color-groups: warm, neutral, cold and miscellaneous. The warm colors will have a yellow/orange undertone, while cold have a more pink undertone. The miscellaneous skincolors are mostly used for the supernatural colors, like blue and green.
Create unique looks with Makeup Sliders
The other huge update to the Create a Sim menu are the sliders for makeup. You can adjust the hue, opacity, saturation and brightness of your Sims’ blush, lipsticks, eyeshadows and -liners & even face paints. Just like with skin tones, you can save your favorite swatches for later use.
You’ll notice not all makeup comes with all four sliders, but even then there is still enough to play with. I’m sure you’ll get your creativity flowing with all the options that are available and create some amazing new looks for your Sims!
Watch the official Skin Tones Update release video
The UI of The Sims 4 receives yet another update
A little more than a year ago The Sims 4 received a whole new look, with a complete rebranding, a new starting menu of the game and even a new plumbob in the logo and loading screens. It appears that it was time for yet another makeover to the game’s menu as the UI got a whole new look during this patch.
DLC gets pushed a little bit more to the background, by giving it a seperate tab instead of placing it on the frontpage of the game. The menu focuses more on the community features like the latest news and gallery creations of other Simmers. A very welcome change if you ask me.
Watch our complete overview of the December 2020 patch
Read the official Patch Notes
Update 12/07/2020 – PC 1.68.57.2010/Mac 1.69.57.1220/Console Version 1.35
Happy Holidays Simmers!
It’s time to go back in to Create a Sim! Where in this update you will find 100+ new skin tones, customization sliders for skin tones and makeup, and three improved base game hairstyles!
Every skin tone now has a value slider that allows you to change the light to dark value of that skin tone, unlocking a much wider variety of skin tone options for you to play with! You will also find that our skin tones are now filterable to warm, cool, and neutral tones (as well as miscellaneous that covers our occult skin tones).
The new makeup sliders add more choices and opportunities for you to customize your Sims, and express your Sim’s style! Hue, saturation, value or brightness, and opacity are now available to modify on the makeup. We have locked some of the sliders where it did not provide an optimal experience or make sense for the makeup. Expect us to continue our work on these issues into the future to provide you with more.
In addition to the customization opportunities provided, you can also save custom swatches as you tweak your sliders to get the perfect look. When you click on the swatch (for skin tones and makeup) as you modify the sliders, you will have an opportunity to save your custom settings, so you can re-use it later without having to remember your perfect looks!
Did we mention that we made some hair updates? We did – we updated a base game child hair (cfHair_BraidedPonyTail), and we added a second version of that hair that removes the baby hairs (cfHair_BraidedPonyTailPlain). And we updated a base game male hair that you may find difficult to recognize from the original hair (ymHair_flatTopTextured)!
We have updated the Main Menu!… Again! The idea behind this change is to create a more cohesive experience and give Packs a more proper space as we continue to grow our content lineup. As a nice bonus, we highlighted the Gallery in a more meaningful way to inspire you.
-SimGuruGnome & SimGuruRusskii
Now onto the FIXES
The Sims 4
- Sketching so much that the Digital Sketch Pad just quit on you? Never fear! Freelancer Sims that use the Digital Sketchpad will now be able to complete designs without being reset abruptly.
- Happy Birthday to all! Sims will now properly Age Up. Adulting is hard but they will make it, don’t worry.
- Fixed an issue in which Doors, Windows, and Arches had cutouts when being reflected in Mirrors. Rorrim Rorrim no eht llaw, ohw si eht tseriaf erutaef fo meht lla?
- Sims that do not have the Fishing Skill, or have not been Fishing at all, will not get notifications about identifying Fish. THEY WERE FISHING WITH THEIR MINDS.
- The following careers have added the “Take Vacation Day” option, yay!
- Gardener (Seasons)
- Military (Strangerville)
- Lifeguard for Teens and Conservationist (Island Living)
- Law, Education, and Engineer (Discover University)
- Civil Designer (Eco Lifestyle).
Editor Russkii note: I didn’t want to add each line in each pack for this fix, it would have looked weird and robotic so that is why I chose to do one bullet point for all in this section.
- Child Sims will no longer forget they are in their Sleepwear when they go to school. Though in these times of Work and School from Home, I don’t blame them one bit.
- The Sweet Escapes Country Toilet will no longer be Comfortable AND Uncomfortable at the same time… There can only be one!
- Sims with the Best Selling Author Aspiration can now complete their task of writing 3 Best Sellers.
- Fixed an issue in which resized objects would disappear when they were part of downloaded Gallery items.
- We revised our Careers (Pack specific and not) and we made sure there were no Chance Cards that were repeated constantly.
- We noticed we had added the option to Clean Up Toddler on kitchen and bathroom sinks for both Toddlers and Children by mistake, so we removed it for both age groups from the sink… but how would have they fit? Like… how? These are the questions that keep me up at night.
- Build Snowpal interaction is no longer available on non-natural ground (For Simmers that own Seasons and/or Snowy Escape). That’s why it’s called a Snowpal, not a Floorpal!
Get to Work
- We made a clarification on the Xenophilia moodlet when interacting with Alien Sims. It should no longer say “From Discovering Aliens” but now it correctly reads “From Interacting with Aliens.”
- Fixed an issue in which childbirth was not possible if Simmers changed the color swatches of the Surgery Tables. Now listen, I have heard about renting whole hospital wings for a birth in real life and other eccentricities, but this… was really something.
Get Together
- Male Sims will no longer get Pregnant after receiving calls from NPC Sims.
City Living
- NPC Sims will now text and call with invitations to Festivals. I personally welcomed the calm and quiet of my phone not beeping about constantly. But I can’t miss a Festival!
- Sims rejoice! Yard sale customers will no longer invade their Home Lots and use Household objects. It is a Yard Sale… OUT in the yard, not an Open House.
- Did you ever regret trusting some Sims enough to give them your apartment keys to constantly get visits from them for Milk and Juice? You can rest assured that they will no longer visit you for this purpose. I think some neighborly love is appreciated, but this went beyond the proverbial “May I have a cup of sugar?” type of situation.
- Fixed an issue in which interactions to participate on GeekCon contests would not appear when interacting with objects.
- We decided to give a bit more clarity when displaying the location of Festivals, so now it will display as “Near <insert location>” and not a distinct location that is not entirely correct. This is true for Festivals in Snowy Escape as well.
Cats and Dogs
- Pets will no longer sleep in random places when told to sleep on their Pet beds. In my world they can sleep where they are most comfortable, my conspiracy… allegedly.
Seasons
- Sims can now Shower in the Rain… Jury is still out on Singing and Dancing.
- Sims will no longer “lose” their shovels when performing other autonomous activities while performing the interaction “Shovel Snow.”
- Our friendly neighborhood Snowpal has been properly renamed to Chill from Chil. Everything I knew before was a lie… a LIE!
- Ever felt like the Holiday spirit has just been too much to handle, and Father Winter starting to show up everywhere and not letting you do much of anything getting a bit… out of hand? Fear not! Father Winter will stop replicating himself* to spread holiday cheer. *Note this fix is not entirely retroactive, new saves should see this without issue. Existing saves will correct themselves over time.
Get Famous
- Duck Security SCROO9E Super XL Smart Vault will no longer disappear after Sims Woohoo in it… you can say Woohoo can be romantic and magical, but maybe not to this extent?
- NPCs from the Actor Career sometimes would never show on Set, making gigs impossible to complete. We’ve spoken with their union reps and everyone has agreed to stop this ridiculous strike. What were they striking about? Was there even a Strike? We may never know.
Island Living
- Mermaids and other Occults should no longer be able to make hybrid occults. How were they making them? Oh boy, I’m not sure if it’s appropriate for me to give you the mermaid-birds and spellcaster-bees talk.
- Randomly generated Mermaid Sims will no longer be seen without some features in affected Simmer Saves. However this fix is not retroactive, so it should be seen fixed in new saves.
- Pizza delivery to Lagoon Look Lot has been fixed to arrive promptly.
This is Sulani Deep Lagoon Pizza, home of the 2×1 Mermadic Kelp Pizza and the Salty Llama Combo, may I take your order?
<Descriptive Simlish on the line>
Uh huh… uh huh…
<Indescribable Simlish on the line>
Yes, we now can ACTUALLY deliver to Lagoon Look…
<Interrogative Simlish on the line>
Yes, we told our delivery Sims that they need to deliver it there and not keep the pizza for themselves… like give it to the actual client.
<Surprised Simlish on the line>
Discover University
- Has this ever happened to you? Your Sim is ready to make an offering to the Sprites only to find a crystal stuck without being able to move it? No longer a problem, Sims now can remove offerings so all their rituals can resume. Sprites rejoice.
- We fixed an issue for our Console Simmers that wouldn’t allow them to close the Humanoid Robot’s Behavior Module Menus correctly.
- Fixed an issue that would cause items to be repossessed when loans were fully paid. That is NOT how it worked Repo Person… NOT how it worked.
- Sims with Research & Debate Skill 3 or higher will no longer be able to “Convince to” with Toddler Sims.
- Masquerade Secret Society Masks are now properly unlocked in Create a Sim when joining the Secret Society.
- Fixed an issue in which Heckle animation was sometimes not being performed autonomously by Sims while playing Ping Pong.
Eco Lifestyle
- Fixed an issue that triggered the Off-the-Grid notifications after traveling to different Lots in Evergreen Harbor, even when they are not labeled as Off-the-Grid.
- We spoke to all Eco Inspectors, and they have agreed that they should NOT be charging the Energy efficient appliances fine if your appliances are fully upgraded to be super efficient and amazing. I mean all that work and still get fined? Not in this house!
- Fixed an issue in which some placeholder text was showing in notifications after Dumpster Diving.
- The Americana Station Speakers will now play Music… as the prophecy foretold.
- When the We Wear Bags N.A.P is active, Grim Reaper will not be partially invisible when appearing on a Lot. Grim Reaper contributes!
- Living the No Appliance lifestyle? We’ve got news for you! Sims will no longer be penalized for not having “Eco-Friendly Appliances.” No appliances, no fines!
Snowy Escape
- Vending Machine Canned Soups and Drinks won’t spoil anymore. Time to stock up!
- Sims can no longer go on Hikes while holding their Toddlers.
- Space Heaters will now be able to be placed on Lots from Inventory. Sharing the warmth everywhere!
- Fixed an issue in which the Shoe Removal Sign in 5-1-2 Kiyomatsu was not working properly. We also added Shoe Removal Signs in 5-1-1 Kiyomatsu and 2-4-2 Wakabamori.
- Sims will now be more visibly furious when having the appropriate furious sentiment toward other Sims. “Yes, I’m mad!… No! This IS my furious face!”
- Fixed an issue with some animations that would stutter while Snowboarding or Skiing. We also made sure that Sims with a high level of those skills would not always choose the Bunny Slopes.
- Izzy Fabulous’ Star Simmi Rank was just too fabulous so we had to correct it to be one star less than displayed. Don’t worry Izzy, you are a full 4 stars in my book, you are that fabulous to me.
- After much debate of whether it is the Cave Shrine or the Mountain Shrine for Hiking destinations we finally decided to just call it Mountain Shrine.
- We revised the Snoop-Proof Bamboo Blinds and it is now possible to drop’em like they’re hot with the Thousand Words Window.
- NPC Sims will no longer “take over” the Slopes for themselves for an indefinite period of time, now they will be sharing with all Sims the joys of the Slopes.
- Fixed an issue in which Sims would get highlighted in the Sentiment Panel as if receiving new Sentiments every time traveling is involved.
- Sims with Rock Climbing Skill 7, or higher, are able to autonomously climb the Tall Wall (Such tall! So much wall!). There is no need to not face what makes you uncomfortable… autonomously.
- Had a chat with Yamachan and asked if he was ok, he seemed to start random conversations and then randomly say goodbye without reason. We are happy to report that he is OK now and will try not to do that. Give us a hug Yamachan.
- Food Stalls at Mt. Komorebi Festivals won’t be closing shop randomly during Festival hours anymore. <guitar and piano intro> Closing time, open all the Stalls and eat all the food in the world…Closing time, turn all the lights on and let Yamachan greet you heeeere…
- Create a Sim asset ymHat_EP10HelmetGoggles has been fixed to no longer display clipping around the neck area as well as we made sure no facial hair is removed when wearing this asset.
Dine Out
- Experimenting with photo frames will no longer use the same picture of an Experimental Meal when displayed.
- Hot Pot meals are now part of Restaurant Menus! I miss the times I would go to eat Hot Pot at a restaurant. One of my favorites has a conveyor belt that carries your fixings never leaving your table for a thing. *happy sigh*
Vampires
- Vampire Sims will no longer be affected by temperature, so they won’t be constantly obsessed with lighting fireplaces trying to get warm.
