An exciting new update to The Sims 4 will give the Sims in your neighbourhood a busy social life, even when you’re not playing. The Neighbourhood Stories update will introduce events and major life moments for the other characters in your game. With the update, your Sim’s neighbour might switch careers, have a baby or get married between your play sessions. The Neighbourhood Stories update will arrive on November 30 and will be free for all players.
When it’s released, the update will only affect certain characters. To start, the new Neighbourhood Stories feature will focus on Sims who are connected to your household. That means the coworkers your Sim’s gotten to know outside of work, friends they’ve met at the gym or library or their good friend a few houses down will all be getting their own social lives, but not the weird neighbour across the street who you try to avoid. It also won’t affect any special NPCs like the Grim Reaper or Father Winter.
But EA says that more characters will be included in future updates, along with more customisation options for how you want the feature to play out. At launch, you’ll have some control over how Neighbourhood Stories work — you’ll be able to either encourage a neighbour Sim to consider a life change, or neighbour Sims will ask your opinion about making a life change and you’ll be able to tell them yes, no, or let them choose.
This way, you’ll still feel like you’re in control of your own game — but there’s something in the update for mischievous Sims players, too. You can influence neighbour Sims by trash talking other characters to them, playing matchmaker, or subtly encouraging a Sim to dump their partner. With the new update, you can lay the groundwork and then see your trickster efforts play off in the life of each Sim.
This comes with two new Aspirations — the Neighborhood Confidante and Villainous Valentine — to encourage your Sim to meddle in their neighbour’s lives for better or worse.
