July 14th - Horse Ranch Livestream!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuFlrvrl3TY


What are you reactions to today's livestream about the Horse Ranch pack?

I really fell head over heels for the horses and the world and nearly everything I saw. Only gripes I had were really for there was not active horse race or competition to attend to participate in which I would think would be great, as a horse own or a spectator, and game play with betting winning and loosing, also as a new community center for events. The could make a band game pack that is a performance center. I would like to show my dogs and cats too.
Also the sheep and goats, are so adorable, probably the 2nd biggest highlight, but they are like objects. I wish they could grow up and sleep in designated places, and chew the grass to keep it a length like a new feature in maintaining grass(lawn mowing). I which you could make soap from the goat's milk too. But over all impressed with every thing else. New active careers they did not mention, but I think it would have been the horse competitions.
Animations for the horses are incredible and I can not wait!

I appreciate the Gurus for doing this, and I like how warm and inviting they were. I have no complaints about the presenters themselves and I think they're great. They did some cool things, like going into detail about painted ceilings, the new swatches and how the system would work. I like how they showed off a decent amount of CAS items and explained some of their ideas, without dragging things out for too long.

That said, I feel like the presentation itself made a bunch of questionable decisions.

• They didn't show off that old man from the gameplay trailer.
  
• Things weren't properly scheduled in-game, so competitions were completely missed.
  
• The competitions are a big part of the horse gameplay, yet almost nothing about it was shown off.
  
• They had to show off things at night, when it would be hard to see things.
  
• I felt like they didn't go into enough detail with the BB. I don't want them to go through each item and show them off, one by one; that would be long and boring. But it would have been nice to see more. The infant update stream was perfect - they had a big room and showed off every item & their swatches, and just showed them without going into excruciating detail.
  
• We didn't get any examples of the breeding system and the special traits foals could get.
  
• They didn't explain what the occult nectars did. I get wanting a surprise, but the Spa Day refresh stream talked about the vampire-exclusive masks.
  
• We have new events, but they didn't show us how they work.
  
• There's lore, but they barely told us anything about it.
  
• I don't think they went into detail over what the new aspirations include? Like what are the steps and each goal? But maybe they did and I just missed it.
  

Since this was pre-recorded and not a livestream, I felt like they could have cut out them faffing about, and just give us the pack's highlights. Much of what we got was stuff we already knew. And they didn't even go into detail about much of them.

It would have been great if they answered FAQs from the sims community. Like with livestreams they could check the chat, but here they had the chance to pick popular questions and go into depth on them, and they wouldn't be put on the spot to come up with an answer. But I guess it would be a bummer to answer some of those questions. Like imagine they dedicate the last few minutes of the stream to say that unicorns aren't coming back, competitions are less interactive than Sims 3's, there would be no festivals, and there might not be much cross-pack compatibility with previous packs' animals.

"Gordy;c-18289688" wrote:
I appreciate the Gurus for doing this, and I like how warm and inviting they were. I have no complaints about the presenters themselves and I think they're great. They did some cool things, like going into detail about painted ceilings, the new swatches and how the system would work. I like how they showed off a decent amount of CAS items and explained some of their ideas, without dragging things out for too long.

That said, I feel like the presentation itself made a bunch of questionable decisions.

• They didn't show off that old man from the gameplay trailer.
  
• Things weren't properly scheduled in-game, so competitions were completely missed.
  
• The competitions are a big part of the horse gameplay, yet almost nothing about it was shown off.
  
• They had to show off things at night, when it would be hard to see things.
  
• I felt like they didn't go into enough detail with the BB. I don't want them to go through each item and show them off, one by one; that would be long and boring. But it would have been nice to see more. The infant update stream was perfect - they had a big room and showed off every item & their swatches, and just showed them without going into excruciating detail.
  
• We didn't get any examples of the breeding system and the special traits foals could get.
  
• They didn't explain what the occult nectars did. I get wanting a surprise, but the Spa Day refresh stream talked about the vampire-exclusive masks.
  
• We have new events, but they didn't show us how they work.
  
• There's lore, but they barely told us anything about it.
  
• I don't think they went into detail over what the new aspirations include? Like what are the steps and each goal? But maybe they did and I just missed it.
  

Since this was pre-recorded and not a livestream, I felt like they could have cut out them faffing about, and just give us the pack's highlights. Much of what we got was stuff we already knew. And they didn't even go into detail about much of them.

It would have been great if they answered FAQs from the sims community. Like with livestreams they could check the chat, but here they had the chance to pick popular questions and go into depth on them, and they wouldn't be put on the spot to come up with an answer. But I guess it would be a bummer to answer some of those questions. Like imagine they dedicate the last few minutes of the stream to say that unicorns aren't coming back, competitions are less interactive than Sims 3's, there would be no festivals, and there might not be much cross-pack compatibility with previous packs' animals.

I agree @Gordy with all your points. While I thoroughly enjoyed everything shown, and I really liked the gurus presenting the items, I wished it was live and they could answer some questions, and a lot were left unanswered. Basic stuff like if you can have horses outside of the world, or the new world overview with lot sizes. Luckily I found else where you can have horses outside of Chestnut Ridge, and here is a map of the lots sizes of the new world. Still so many more questions and features not shown. I fear there isn't much more than a rabbit-hole for the competitions, and I thought that would be the most exciting part.


Screenshot 2023-07-14 at 10.16.39 PM by leucosia x, on Flickr

I enjoyed the "live" stream very much, presenters were very nice, chill and obviously at least one of them skilled on RL horses and not just the game. Loved seeing the world, and especially Galloping Gulch seems amazingly spacious! I hope we can choose to "ride along" and won't need to click the ground again every few meters. It will be very soothing watching my sim ride along - when my sim&horse are well trained, that is :)

I do think some features should have been presented more in detail, like the contests. I'm fine with the equestrian center being a rabbit hole, but there must be something connected to that event. Can we access the competition wearing just anything or are there certain rules? Preparations before entering obviously include lots of practicing, but we barely got to see the barrel thing, no jumping at all, and not the 2 other contest versions. I also would like there to be some extra when your sim wins 1st prize, perhaps a couple poses and a picture automatically taken for your trophy wall. In my game I will add a stage/press corner on the approaching park which seems to be the natural arrival point when not already living in New Appaloosa.

Would also like to learn more about breeding horses. Maybe they mentioned it but I missed it.

Godd to know that I will enjoy watching the stream again, at least once :)

I finally got a chance to sit down this morning and watch the Livestream.?

I'm really excited about this pack entirely for the nectar making! I'm hoping and praying it works right, straight out of the box, so I can pick up this pack sooner rather than later. Nectar making is something I've been wanting from the TS3 days and it fits perfectly with an ongoing story of mine. There is a lot to like and love with this pack. My only qualm is why did we get another distinctly American world? Chestnut Ridge is just Strangerville without the mystery. I'm an American myself and I love and want worlds that I can't find right here. I knew it would be an American world but I was hoping it would be one that could be adapted with builds to look like another part of the world, or even several different parts of America. Unfortunately it's pretty much another really super niche American world and would require a lot of extremely careful camera work to eliminate the telltale backgrounds, but even then the terrain outside of the lots is a giveaway.

For the remainder of TS4's life cycle, no more distinctly American worlds? Pretty, pretty please? There is a great big beautiful, wonderful world outside of our borders, lets explore it together.

Those who have doubts about the expansion pack should simply wait for reviews before purchasing. Don't rush out and purchase on day one.

I have a question for EA. In the "livestream" did they just milk baby sheep and goats or bottle feed adult sheep and goats? Either one is pretty messed up.

"JustinB113;c-18289831" wrote:
The live stream focused on the new ceilings but they are a base game feature.

It’s cool they update for base game as well but then it’s not really a horse ranch thing and shouldn’t be in horse ranch stream. Perhaps it should have been pack feature and that would have been a really good feature to show off. But because it’s base game it doesn’t really count as a good reason to buy the pack.

I would have preferred to see more things just from the pack. Like they also featured barbecues and playing the guitar and sims can already do that.

Still I do think it’s going to be fun and the horses will be good.

the focus on ceilings when it's a base game update is like Growing Together and the Infant update. I mean I don't get growing together as an expansion pack less so than horses as an expansion pack. I so glad they are fixing the ceilings because when I film my interiors, the ceilings, (even with my plaster ceiling mod, doesn't looks the best. I have held back on posting some interior footage in tik toks because os it

"cdshrout1171;c-18289938" wrote:
I have a question for EA. In the "livestream" did they just milk baby sheep and goats or bottle feed adult sheep and goats? Either one is pretty messed up.

I missed that. Will watch it again. That's ironic lol