The first Maxis Monthly livestream aired yesterday, acting as a State of the Union for The Sims and their other titles. The livestream had some announcements for Sims FreePlay and Mobile, but it also showed off an upcoming patch to The Sims 4 that will add a new job and terrain tools.
The new job, Style Influencers, will give players the opportunity to show off their Sims and their meticulously designed outfits, meaning that your Sim’s fashion choices actually have a tangible influence in the game. Style Influencers start off as humble Rag Reviewers and can make their own fashion blog in order to rise through the job ranks.
The Style Influencer works at home, unlike other jobs where your Sim becomes inaccessible for a period of time (or the jobs you can follow your Sims to in the Get a Job expansion pack.) During the job, Style Influencers can give other Sims, whether they be NPC or controllable, a makeover if the recipient likes the Sim enough. Successful makeovers will catch on in the neighborhood, causing other Sims to adopt your fashionable ideas.
Perhaps the most interesting feature of the stream was the addition of terrain tools:
The new tools give aspiring landscapers a whole new way to customize their homes, giving a variety of ways to raise, lower, and sculpt terrain to one’s liking. The game has given us the ability to make pools and basements in the past, but never in The Sims 4 have players been able to build on anything other than flat land with an even yard. During the livestream, the developers also briefly built what looks like a garage, hinting at the possibility of Sims being able to own and drive cars.
The terrain tool patch for The Sims 4 is scheduled to release sometime past October.