A huge, free The Sims 4 update has just been released, giving you plenty of new ways to express your style and creativity in the best life game. With The Sims 4 Horse Ranch release date galloping around the corner, EA Maxis is giving all Sims 4 players some nice new features to play with for free, with a raft of new items in build mode, new customization options for Create-A-Sim, and bug fixes for some of the most annoying issues across almost every DLC pack.
The Sims 4 update 1.99.264.1030 (or the much simpler 1.78 for those of you on console) is packed with new features that everyone can enjoy, whether you’re planning to jump into Horse Ranch or simply enjoying one of the best free games on PC. First up, a reorganization of Traits has more evenly spread them across the various categories.
CAS gets some additional presets and details, with a focus on improving the game’s diverse character creation toolkit. “Braids and long, flowing hair is important to the cultural identity of Indigenous People in America,” Sim Guru Ash notes. “To reflect this in-game, we are enthused to add three hairstyles in the form of a Double Braid, Single Braid, and Lengthened Hair that extends down to your Sims mid-back.”
In addition to this, Ash adds, “For our East Asian Sims, we have a large selection of new eye presets and brows in tapered, straight, and wavy shapes.” There have also been some new under-eye bags added to the ‘Eye Details’ category, if you want to truly capture that perpetually tired look of someone juggling their career, children, and social life all at once.
Build mode now has access to the ‘Free Camera’ option, helping you more easily look around and plan out your construction and furnishing. This is especially helpful if you’d like to look up at the new customizable ceilings – that’s right, you can now apply patterns and colors to them; gone are the days of bland ceilings ruining your carefully constructed vibe. There are also a bunch of new wall, floor, fence, and door options, each with additional colors.
There’s also updates for most of the best Sims 4 expansion packs. These include very welcome fixes for issues such as the Sims 4 animal aging bug causing pets to die unexpectedly, along with ensuring that your Sims will try to wash their hands in the sink closest to the toilet rather than wandering about the house. You will now have to feed your mermaids, however, so be wary of that!
The Sims 4 patch notes – 1.99.264.1030 update, Tuesday July 18, 2023
Here is everything new in the free The Sims 4 patch released on July 18 to prepare for the arrival of The Sims 4 Horse Ranch:
New Features
Create-A-Sim
- New hairstyles: Double braid, Single braid, Lengthened hair.
- New eye presets and brows: Tapered, Stright, Wavy.
- New under-eye bags: Three varieties.
Food
- Three Sisters Chili: Now available to cook on the grill. In Native American tradition, “the three sisters“ are corn, beans, and squash. They grow best together in the same plot.
Traits
- Traits have had a bit of a reorganization. You will now find traits more evenly distributed under the Emotional, Hobby, Lifestyle, and Social categories.
Build Mode
- Free Camera added: Simply enable as you would in Live Mode.
- Ceilings: The ability to apply colors and patterns to the ceilings is now yours.
- When you open up Build Mode you will find the update where you would previously apply Floor Patterns (now renamed Floor and Ceiling Patterns).
- Simply select Ceilings by Tile or Ceilings by Room. Then select your pattern and apply it to the ceiling of your choice.
- This does not apply to the underside of roofs.
- A number of Wall, Floor, Fence and Door patterns have been updated with additional colors. The full list is below.
- New color variants for the following wall patterns:
- Essence of Pastel
- Desert Skies
- Above Deck
- New color variants for the following wood floor patterns:
- Heartwood Plank Flooring
- ForestFine Wood Flooring
- Elegant Parquet Flooring
- Herringbone Hardwood Flooring
- Rustic Subfloor Slats
- Bowl of Cherrywood Floors
- Chestnut Flooring
- Kwality Wide Plank Flooring
- Old World Wide Plank Flooring
- Walk the Short Plank Hardwood Floors
- Eco-Craft Hardwood Flooring
- Handscraped Wood Flooring
- Limber Lumber Fashion Hardwoods
- Chipper Tanbark
- New color variants for the following stone or brick floor patterns:
- Perfect Pebble Paver
- Throwback Cobblestone & Brick Pavers
- A Clean Slate Tile
- Great Gravel
- High-Style Concrete
- No Moss Stone Pavers
- Antique Stone Tile
- Rockstone Pavers
- Rustic Sandstone
- Concrete Pavers with Gravel Accent
- Quaint Flagstone
- Brick and Blush
- Dulcet Duet, Brick & Plaster, and Plaster Makes Perfect wall patterns have been updated with matching color variants.
- New color variants added for Ladder-Style Horizontal Fencing.
- New color variants have been added for the Simple Single-Panel Door as its own door, the Simple Single-Panel Door – Ranch.
Bug Fixes
Live Mode
- Sims now more consistently wash hands in the sink closest to the toilet.
- The Items Removed error message will no longer appear if you own everything on the lot.
- The Have a Baby Neighborhood Story will no longer cause pregnancies for Sims that are listed as unable to become pregnant in their Gender Settings.
- Knafeh now remains visible even from a distance. If you have not tried this delicious dessert in real life, we highly recommend it!
- The R&B station now includes ”BMO” by Ari Lennox, ”breathe again” by Joy Oladokun, and ”Blessed” by Becca Hatch & Tentendo.
- Flowers no longer sometimes break when loading a saved game.
- Sims now receive satisfaction points from confronting their Fears.
- Reaching the top of the Military Career will now reward the player with the appropriate celebration screen.
- The ‘Help with Needs’ animation on Infants now is smoother when a Sim picks them up.
- Cleaned up animations for Teenage Sims while they are angry, seated, and focusing on a Sim adjacent to them.
Build Mode
- Stacking intersecting curved walls on top of each other no longer creates gaps in the ceiling of the lower room.
- Doors can now be placed on the wall under circular roofs.
- Interior corner walls with stilt foundations can now be deleted.
- Curved walls no longer cause seam lines to appear on terrain.
- Raising terrain and then undoing that height adjustment or placing a platform no longer prevents objects from being placed in that area.
- Fixed a rare issue where placing stairs at the edge of a platform would cause floating planks to appear above the stairs.
- Raising and lowering a platform with stairs attached no longer sometimes cuts out a segment of the wall.
- The Sinks category icon in Build Mode now lines up perfectly.
- Double and single gates no longer sometimes pop up one floor level when being placed on exterior fence walls.
- Players will now be able to click and drag the sledgehammer across curved walls to delete them.
- Stair railings have been added to multiple pre-built homes. Safety prevails!
Create-A-Sim
- When using a mirror, applied skin details are now saved after exiting Create a Sim.
- When using a mirror, birthmark skin details are now saved after reentering Create a Sim.
- The tops ymTop_SDX016Rolled_HeatherDustyPink and ymTop_SDX016TouristShirt_TropicalRed no longer give female Sims rough shapes.
- Fixed an issue where the jersey yfTop_EF26HHCJerseyMrCartoon_ButterflyBlue caused incorrect fingernail colors to display.
- The tank top yfTop_TankShort_SolidBlueNavy now tucks underneath pants, skirts, shorts, etc.
- Create a Sim UI has been updated so that the Select Traits title won’t overlap with other visual elements.
Misc
- Entering the wrong Twitter credentials or completing the email verification requirement no longer causes the game to crash.
- The game now gracefully handles disconnecting Bluetooth devices.
Get To Work
- The Robot on the Invention Constructor will now respond to requests to chat.
- Invention Constructors have been repaired. They now properly display their holographic displays in the construction area and not on top of the Sim operating the device.
- Sims in the Doctor Career can now calibrate X-ray Machines. This info has been added to their medical training.
- Alien fertility increased. Male Sims that are abducted by Aliens can now get pregnant.
Cats & Dogs
- Townie Sims no longer occasionally unleash their Dogs before walking out of a neighborhood. There will be no more flashbacks to Seymour waiting in front of a pizza shop.
- Paint Mode for Dogs had a white swatch that now properly is brown.
Seasons
- ‘Hang This Support Beam’ spandrel no longer turns white when it snows outside.
- Interactions for lighting a Menorah or Kinara now have unique icons.
- The interaction to build a Snowpal will no longer fail while visiting Mt. Komorebi.
- The outfits ymBody_EP05SkateOutfit_swanGray and ymBody_EP05SuitVelvet_SolidBlack no longer distort Sims legs.
Get Famous
- Hairstyles unlocked by the Acting Career now show all newly added hair swatches.
Island Living
- Mermaids previously would not die due to starvation or aging up. That has been fixed. Remember to feed your Mermaids!
- [MAC] Fixed a small shader issue on the Lagoon Look lot in Sulani.
Discover University
- Listen To interaction has been added to the Party-Bot.
- Thick window frames will no longer stick out when the camera pans behind them.
- The amount of Robotic Scrap gained when performing an Experiment on a Chemistry Lab has been tuned down.
- Sims will now get a 200 simoleon higher bonus for starting the Chef Career track after getting a university degree. It practically pays for itself.
Eco Lifestyle
- Fixed an issue where the Wood Ear Plugs yfAcc_EarringsEP09EarPlugsWood appeared discolored when paired with specific hairstyles.
- Fixed a rare issue where the Eco Inspector would still issue fines to Households that had upgraded their appliances.
- Fixed an issue where Neighboring Sims could not be sent home. Neighborly manners have been repaired.
- Removed a duplicate ‘Place in World’ interaction that appeared on Trash Fruit in the Sim’s inventory.
Snowy Escape
- Ski Boots no longer appear in the ‘Change Outfit’ picker. Sims will also remove Ski Boots when bathing. A ‘Take Off Snow Boots’ interaction has been added.
- Hang This Support Beam from the Seasons Expansion Pack no longer appears blank when placed on the Yukimatsu lot.
- Fixed an issue where Snowy Escape Doors would cause a small shift in the wallpaper on the wall they were placed on.
Cottage Living
- Animals no longer age up and die when the ‘Animal Aging’ option is turned off in Game Settings.
- Fixed an issue where Earbuds would occasionally play multiple songs at the same time when listening to Cottage Core music.
- Cows and Llamas come out of their sheds autonomously and no longer are unhappy when their shed is clean and full with feed.
- Fixed a few cases where Sims would not autonomously choose to Knit & Cross Stitch.
- Sims are now able to socialize with Rabbits.
- Fixed an issue where Chickens would not eat treats.
- Residents of Henford-on-Bagley will less often mention how local residents are in need of help.
- Animal friends now appear in the Relationship Panel filter for ‘Friends’.
- Various translation fixes have been applied to the Wild Rabbit Home.
- The Start Gardening Help for All Rabbit Residents interaction is no longer missing from the Wild Rabbit Home.
- Rooster images now show more of the Rooster.
- Matzah Ball Soup and Challah now are available for the Simple Living Lot Challenge.
- Sims now immediately join cooking during the Cook together with interaction.
High School Years
- Sims will no longer return from work or school early on the day they change the color of their Phone Case.
- Townie Sims are no longer all pansexual.
- ‘Ship to Buyer’ no longer breaks when the Sim replaces the Mailbox on their home lot. Trendi sales can now be completed.
- The Want to ‘Listen to Music’ has been tuned to occur less frequently.
- Fixed High School Years hairstyles that were applying hair color to Sim’s ears.
- Fixed an issue where Teen Sims would stay at Career Day too long which prevented them from serving detention. This would then get them expelled.
- Fixed an issue where Sims who left graduation early were occasionally stuck in their graduation outfits.
- Infants and Toddlers no longer use the same animation as adults when using the EZ Access Window object.
- Fixed rare situations where the ‘Angry About Crush’ sentiment was triggering incorrectly.
- The ‘Ask about Graduation’ interaction is no longer available on Sims that haven’t been greeted.
Growing Together
- Karmine Luna no longer appears with a random personality trait in each new save.
- Broken objects on Activity Tables no longer are observed when placed in Treehouses.
- Fixed a rare issue where food made by Eleanor Sullivan could not be cleaned up.
- Fixed unusual cases of Adult Sims refusing to pick up and interact with Toddlers that had returned from daycare until those Toddlers had changed outfits.
- During the New Born’s ‘Age Up’ interaction, the ‘Baby’s First Rug’ object is now placed in more appropriate locations.
- Fixed an issue in specific languages where the Title on the Self-Discovery Personality Trait pop up would overlap with other text on the screen.
- Sims sitting on couches can now perform social Crib interactions.
Dine Out
- Fixed a rare issue when running a restaurant where Hosts and Chefs were not able to be hired from the Manage Employees menu.
- Fixed an issue where sometimes opening the Sim Profile of a Chef would instead open the Sim Profile of the last Sim the player had looked at.
Vampires
- Vampire Sims can now do group dances on the dance floor.
Realm of Magic
- Sims now hold Valerian Root properly when eating it from Inventory.
Star Wars: Journey to Batuu
- The Batuu Radio Stations are now available for Likes and Dislikes in the Music Genre category in Create a Sim.
Dream Home Decorator
- Sim Preferences now support custom pronouns in English.
My Wedding Stories
- Fixed pricing for a few pack items.
- Dance floors now have the ‘Dancing skill’ tag in Build Mode
- Decorative objects now have an ‘Environment’ value.
Werewolves
- Players are now able to add, change, or modify body scars during the game.
- Moon textures are no longer the same in all worlds.
- Added new Clean Up Books interaction on most genre books (not including homework or skill books) that are in the open street and not owned by the Player’s Sim . This will allow books to be cleaned up.
Movie Hangout
- Sims can now watch TV without needing player direction.
Knifty Knitting
- Added new text to show that Sim’s are able to knit onesies for Infants and Babies as well.
Moschino
- Moschino item prices have been adjusted to fit the style.
Bust the Dust
- Vacuum Cleaner game performance now is even more… sucky…. In a good way, of course.
Courtyard Oasis
- The ‘Functional Off-The-Grid’ stat has been added to the Sunset Glow Lantern object and the incorrect ‘Power Consumption Rating’ on the object has been fixed.
- Items from Courtyard Oasis Kit, Industrial Loft Kit, Decor to the Max Kit, and Little Campers Kit have been tuned to have more sensible pricing and environment values.
Carnaval Streetwear
- The Carnaval Radio Station is now available for Likes and Dislikes in the Music Genre category in Create a Sim.
If you want even more fantastic free additions, the best Sims 4 CC packs are full of great community-made options, while the best Sims 4 mods let you take your customization even further with all manner of even fancier updates.