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The Sims 4’s pool-shaped gap has been filled

The Sims 4 pools

When Maxis revealed that there would be a pool-shaped gap in The Sims 4, there was much sadness. Indeed, the tears from pool-lovers everywhere could have filled several hundred Olympic-sized swimming pools.

That dry period is now over, though and our poor Sims can now cool themselves off in their new pools.

It’s not just bog standard pools that you can slap onto your Sims’ homes. Pools can be constructed on any level and in all manner of shapes. Fancy a glass-bottom pool dangling off the side of your mansion? How about a moat for your out-of-place castle?

These are all silly questions. The first thing you’ll all do is build a regular pool, fill it with people and then remove any means of escape. But it’s okay, because with last month’s ghost update, you’re not really murdering anyone. You’re just transforming them into colourful, transparent house guests.

The pool update also comes with a big patch that adds swimming costumes (and new styled looks), performance tweaks and bug fixes. Take a look at the next page for the full patch notes.

Pools

  • Jump into Create a Sim to customize your Swimwear!
    • Choose from the Styled Looks to quickly swim up your Sim; or choose the perfect one or two-piece bikini, swim trunks or budgie smugglers!
    • Top off your creation with a hat, some sandals, and a dab of sunscreen down the bridge of your nose, and you are ready to go!
  • Build out your pool in Build Mode by clicking on the Build tab, and the Pools image in the home portrait
    • You can place pre-fashioned pool blocks (triangle, square, diagonal, or octagon), or you can use the Pool Tool to draw your own pool.
  • Pools can be built on any floor of your home or venue.
  • Decorate and enhance your pool with pools lights, install a ladder, customize the wall and floor textures to your liking then plop down some decals or add some windows for that aquarium’esque experience!
  • Sims can enjoy the comforts of your newly built pool, whether they are socializing as they dangle their digits in the water, splashing the kids, or putting themselves out after being set on fire by an angry ghost who had died from a tragic poolside grilling accident.
  • Be wary of the hungry and fatigued, a moment too long in the pool has been known to cause a lack of living. The Reaper will gladly accept your pleas, though he may not always oblige them.

Performance

  • Several performance issues were found and addressed with this release, and we will continue to look into improving performance across the board.
  • Fixed an issue that could result in the player being unable to place a room from the gallery if it contained a slotted object.
  • Fixed an issue that would prevent you from loading an older save with an updated version of the game.
  • Sometimes the game crashes in a completely logical fashion and sometimes…
    • We fixed an issue that would cause household members to delete themselves, but only if a household of more than one began their existence at the Potters Splay lot, one member of the household then traveled to visit the Pique Hearth or Rindle Rose household, and then returned home to find their other household members have gone missing. The Potters Splay lot has been thoroughly exorcised and made safe for Sim living once again.
  • On a similar note, there was a counter and an oven at Yuma Heights that could cause a crash, these too have been fixed.
  • We fixed a freeze that could occur when attempting to move in with a homeless Sim if you changed your mind (having realized they don’t have a home) and attempted to back out of the move-in flow.
    • Rejoice! You can once again choose to move in with the homeless even though they don’t have a home. You can decide to not move in to their homeless home, but rather choose to move into a new home with them, or move the homeless Sim into your home.

Tuning/Graphics

  • Fixed an issue that resulted in a placed counter sink being deleted when the player moved the counter.
  • You can now search for “TV” in Build Mode, because it turns out nobody uses the word television.
  • Fixed an issue with newly created Sims made from an older shared household overwriting the original household.
  • Fixed an issue where Sims refused to clean up books if the action was initiated through the bookshelf. It seems Sims prefer to be told directly, rather than the bookshelf leaning over and whispering “Hey, my books are showing.”
  • Fixed an issue that resulted in elder female Sims forgetting they had two legs, and instead walking with a one-legged stutter step, “Pardon me m’lady, but you have two legs.”
  • Fixed an issue that could occur during the swapping of the Urn and Tombstone models that would result in the urn/tombstone forgetting what it was and losing all functionality.
    • On a side note, why use the word “could”? It turns out that bugs do not occur for all people, often due to the complexity of what is happening in the code. In this issue, the reproducible case that allowed us to verify the issue as resolved required you to perform an action an unreasonable number of times in succession, in order to see the issue occur once.
  • Fixed an issue where Sims were choosing to kneel at improper moments, being socially awkward, kneeling at the dining table, or similarly strange occurrences.
  • Children will no longer levitate when attempting to blow out the candles of a cake on a counter. Nobody believed the levitation really occurred anyway, and those who “saw” the levitation are no longer available for comment.
  • Fixed an issue with Ghosts possessing Grills, that would cause them to open the grill, examine the contents, close the grill, and then jump in. We have informed the ghosts that the contents of the grill will have no bearing upon their dietary preferences, nor will they be viewed any differently for choosing to possess a grill when they just feel like possessing a grill.
  • Fixed an issue that would result in multiple Sims standing in the same place when they chose to play as sea monster.
    • It was noted that this bug made them look like a sea monster, so… an internal debate rose regarding the believable nature of the issue. Were the Sims expressing their inner monster as they played Sea Monster? Should we take that away from them? Did we even have the right to? As the producers were busy debating the philosophical merits involved, planning meetings, and contemplating the social ramifications… the engineer fixed it. And well here we are, with our Sims sea monsterly expression ripped from them.

Build Mode

  • The simple way to state it: We fixed an issue where auto counters would stop working correctly after modifying the nearby architecture.
  • The not so simple way: When placing a counter perpendicular to a wall, and placing a second counter opposite to it, then placing a third counter positioned in front of the second one as if you were attempting to create a corner with auto-counters, then deleting the wall, and then once again attempt to create a corner piece, was resulting in auto-counters losing functionality. We fixed this.
  • Fixed an issue that would cause undo and redo to stop working if the undo action undid a foundation doing.
  • Fixed an issue when deleting an object with other objects slotted to it, with the sledgehammer that prevented undo from returning the slotted objects (or, if you deleted a table with a vase on it, and then chose to undo the action, the vase would not come back).
  • Fixed a “quick-click” issue. Delete floor, exit Build Mode, Sim is floating! Ta-dah!
  • Fixed an interface issue with the remove ceiling button flickering when the cursor hovered over it.
  • Fixed an interface issue that would result in the Build Mode catalog failing to properly open when switching between Build and Live Modes.
    • Learning time: By the way, in case you were curious on the correct pronunciation of Live, simply say to yourself “I Build in Build mode, and I Live in Live mode.”