The Sims 4: Neighborhood Stories

Not enough life, you say? Not enough drama, you say? You mean to tell me that your sims didn’t run off and completely ruin their lives when you weren’t looking? Well, presenting: Neighborhood Stories! Let the chaos begin!

“Neighborhood Stories are a set of gameplay moments that all revolve around a single purpose: bring more life to Neighbor Sims that live outside the active household. (“Neighbor Sims” refers to most of the non-player character (NPC) Sims in the game, not just ones who live on the same street as your household. Neighbor Sims excludes special NPCs such as Grim Reaper.)”
– Nate, designer for The Sims 4

Neighborhood stories will be a multi-stage release, and there are going to be different types of things that can happen – either making their own decisions, or acting at the influence of another sim. The two ways this works:

1) You direct one of your Sims to influence a Neighbor Sim to consider a life change, or…

2) A Neighbor Sim autonomously considering a life change will always call one of your Sims to ask for input before taking any action. You choose the outcome by directing your Sim to say “Yes,” “No,” or leaving it up to the Neighbor Sim to decide.

Autonomous-Only Life Changes

– Try to get promoted in their current Career.

– Accept a marriage proposal, if they are already Engaged to another Sim. Neighbor Sims will not autonomously get married for now.

Sim-Influenced Life Changes

– Trash talk one Sim to another, which will greatly reduce the relationship between those two Neighbor Sims.

– Try to get two grown-up Sims, or two Teen Sims, to form a Romantic relationship.

– Try to convince a Sim in a relationship to dump/divorce their Romantic partner

– Encourage an unemployed Neighbor Sim to find a job

Both Autonomous OR Sim-Influenced Changes

– Change their current Career to a different one.

– Have a baby with their partner, if they are in a relationship where either Sim can become pregnant.

– Hang out with other Sims to form or deepen Friendly relationships

New Aspirations

There are two new aspirations coming with this update:

– Neighborhood Confidante is for Sims who aspire to be a helpful and positive presence in the lives of Neighbor Sims. Making friends and guiding others toward life changes will earn the new Confidante trait, which increases the chance of conversations being pleasant. Ever had a conversation turn Boring or Awkward in the middle of a party? Confidante Sims are less susceptible to these mood killers.

– Villainous Valentine is for Sims who aspire to destroy the love lives of all Sims, including their own. Have your Sim break up with someone! Have them break up other couples! Sims that walk this deviant path will earn the new Twisted Heart trait, which makes all Sad and Embarrassed moodlets decay faster and provides a little bonus Social when performing Mean or Mischief socials. Twisted Heart Sims simply DGAFB, which as we all know, stands for “Don’t Give A Freezer Bunny”.

Future Updates

As stated, this update is going to be a multi-targeted approach that rolls out over time. This means that unlike the Story Progression in Sims 3 that was merely “On” or “Off,” Neighborhood Stories will have various settings that let you customize and control how the dynamic of your world works.

At launch, Neighborhood Stories will only affect sims in the world that have a relationship with the current active household. This will ultimately be changed so that all Sims in a world will – if enabled – take part in the Neighborhood Stories progression.

Coming to a world near you!

In order for these neighborhood stories to progress, you will see more results in accordance with how many high-level relationships your sims have with townies and other neighborhood sims.

Start looking for Neighborhood Stories in your game on November 30th, 2021!