SimGurus have taken to Twitter to answer questions for the upcoming Sims 4 My First Pet Stuff Pack! See here for Part 2 of this Q&A.
Pets (yes, plural!) coming in #TheSims4 My First Pet Stuff:
✅ Hamsters
✅ Rats
✅ African Pygmy Hedgehogs
❎ Sonic the Hedgehog
✅ Bubalus— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
Not seen in today's #TheSims4 My First Pet Stuff trailer… the return of a certain highly contagious and deadly disease… 😷🤒🤮☠️
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
Rodents will not take up a household slot – feel free to place as many as you're able to keep up with caring for.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
Because of its dependency on The Sims 4 Cats & Dogs, we wanted to wait to show it until we could fully discuss it. I'll be sharing details on how it works shortly here.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
Same as with the rest of the stuff packs, this is a new pack for purchase.
— Aaron Houts (@SimGuruHouts) March 6, 2018
Everyone has their own opinions on which packs are worth it. Would you pay $10 for 2 hours of entertainment at a movie? Do you think you'll get at least 2 hours of enjoyment out of this over all the time you own it? If yes, maybe it's for you. If no, maybe it's not for you. 🙂
— Aaron Houts (@SimGuruHouts) March 6, 2018
You’re going to see legalese for The Sims 4 My First Pet Stuff that reads like this:
“Requires The Sims 4 game (sold separately) and all game updates to play. Requires The Sims 4 Cats & Dogs (sold separately) to access all content.”
…let me explain what that actually means.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
The Sims 4 My First Pet Stuff can be purchased and played by anyone who only has The Sims 4 base game. If you play it without having The Sims 4 Cats & Dogs installed, here's a breakdown of how each portion of the pack works…
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
New Gameplay: If you play The Sims 4 My First Pet Stuff without having The Sims 4 Cats & Dogs installed, you’ll be able to play with all of the new gameplay features that are coming with the pack.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
New Objects: If you play The Sims 4 My First Pet Stuff without having The Sims 4 Cats & Dogs installed, you’ll be able to place all of the new objects in the pack. However, pet specific objects that are intended for cats and dogs will not have interactions on them.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
New Clothing: If you play The Sims 4 My First Pet Stuff without having The Sims 4 Cats & Dogs installed, you’ll be able to use all of the new clothing coming for Sims of all ages. You will not have access to the new outfits and accessories worn by cats and dogs.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
I appreciate that many people are feeling this way. The expansion team decided to focus on more depth for cats and dogs, and to include things that were brand new to the franchise such as Vets. They had to leave some past "pets" features behind to have time to try new things.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
Definitely – the hamster, its habitat, and all of the new gameplay features surrounding it don't require having Cats & Dogs installed.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
Mostly correct. Like I mentioned, pet specific objects (cat condo, food bowl, litter box, etc) can be placed in your home, but they won't have interactions unless Cats & Dogs is also installed.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
The expansion team wanted to add brand new features in Cats & Dogs such as Vets, and to create pets that were more in-depth than anything we'd done in past games. We're trying to bring people different twists on familiar content, which can mean different sets of features.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
My First Pet Stuff is the same as other Stuff Packs in that it requires a separate purchase.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
Functionally, that's possible for Cats & Dogs content now. I don't know what the future holds in terms of very specific cross pack content in other packs though.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
Sure – it's hard to break down everything in detail via tweets, but a high level overview is the four new pets, the secret lives they lead, the habitat they live in, the various interactions Sims have with them, the rodent disease that can be caught and spread, and the new death.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
Technically? Sure. But during development we're always making decisions about what content to include, and the expansion team wanted to try adding brand new things to the franchise like Vets, and creating cats and dogs with way more depth. Doing new things takes time.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
No problem, thanks for sharing your perspective. Doing new things always takes time, but it comes from a desire to deliver cool new things. The EP team wanted to add Vets for the first time, and to have way more depth to the cats and dogs than we've been able to do in the past.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
Each of the pets shares the same overall behavior, but there's a nice diversity to what they can do. Within their habitat they have their exercise wheel, tunnels, sand bath, bedroom, food dish, and of course their workshop where they do secret rodent stuff 😉
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
Well, we do have the ability to add more Cats & Dogs content now. I don't specifically know if we'll do more of that in future packs though.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
I'll be sold similarly as other Stuff Packs; owning other packs won't affect the price.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
The rodents won't get sick themselves, but there are some new Vet treats that you can feed them (and I should mention, you can get the treats without Cats & Dogs as well).
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
No, they aren't fully customizable like cats or dogs. You'll select which habitat you want from the build catalog, and you can purchase a new rodent should your existing one die or be released.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
The rodents don't require a new household slot – feel free to have as many as you're able to keep up with caring for 🙂
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
Nope, rodents do not take up a household slot. Feel free to add as many as you're able to keep up with caring for 🙂
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
I don't know about any potential bundles or deals, as a developer I'm just not particularly involved in how it gets sold.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
We wanted to do a lot with the rodents… it has 4 different rodents, they lead their own secret lives, they have lots of interactive elements in their habitat, you care for and play with them, and there's a new contagious disease you can die from. Pretty packed for a Stuff Pack!
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
No, not babies – and toddlers are too short to reach the habitat. Children can fully care for and play with them though, and of course older ages as well.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
No, unfortunately not. When you set something for sale in a store, it disables all interactions on that thing… rodent or otherwise. We found that by allowing rodents to be sold, they would just slowly die and you couldn't care for them, so we disabled the ability to sell them.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
We wanted to do a lot with the rodents… 4 different rodents, they lead their own secret lives, they have lots of interactive elements in their habitat, you care for and play with them, and there's a new contagious disease you can die from. It's a lot for the size of a SP.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
Definitely – all of the rodents, their habitat, your interactions with them, the secret lives they lead, the disease they can spread, etc… all new gameplay features are available even without having Cats & Dogs.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
You purchase their habitat from the build catalog, and your initial purchase will come with the rodent of your choice. Should that rodent die, or should you choose to release them, you can purchase additional rodents from the habitat itself.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
The habitat itself comes in a variety of colors, but they all have the same layout and components… exercise wheel, play tunnels, sand bath, bedroom, food dish, and a workshop for their secret lives 😉
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
No. When you set something for sale in a store, it disables all interactions on that thing. We found that by allowing rodents to be sold, they would just slowly die and you couldn't care for them, so we disabled the ability to sell them. That also extends to empty cages.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
Don't worry, there's in-game lore establishing how there's a real Voidcritter pet that's cannon 😉
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
No new fish in this pack, just a swanky fish tank coffee table that comes pre-stocked with fish 🙂
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
They don't wander around the home. You can temporarily take them out of their habitat to play with them, but afterwards back into their home they go.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
Because this pack works a little differently with the additional content for Cats & Dogs, we wanted to hold back on sharing it until we could fully discuss it.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 6, 2018
That's one of the many complexities of game development. Sometimes things that look relatively simple take a LOT of time to actually create, while something seemingly complex can be done in a reasonable amount of time.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 7, 2018
As it's been explained to me, having two Sims performing unrelated interactions in the same vertical space on the same floor level would cause problems with something we call constraints.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 7, 2018
We'd need to dedicate engineering time to updating the constraint system to work properly with a feature like bunk beds, which would take more engineering time then we have for a single stuff pack.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 7, 2018
I totally get that there's desire for other types of pets as well, but there's a lot in this Stuff Pack. 4 different rodents, interactive parts of their habitat, the secret lives they lead, how Sims interact with & care for them, the contagious rodent disease and new death, etc.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 7, 2018
No problem… I'd say that it's a game that's entering its 4th year and still going strong. Different teams in the studio make different content that all contributes to keeping The Sims relevant with fun new things that players want to come back to.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 7, 2018
Sometimes that content is free, and sometimes it costs money. Stuff Packs in particular are each meant to appeal to different groups of players. We aren't expecting you to purchase every single one, but to try ones that look exciting to you from a broad selection.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 7, 2018
Personally I really enjoy a lot of the subtle behavioral work that went into making them more realistic and individual from each other. One example in particular, as a cat owner, the way they walk under tables or jump up on counters made me feel a stronger connection with them.
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) March 7, 2018
