April Patch Speculation 2020 (Available Now April 7th)

Not too sure about what is really going on but a little communication wouldn't hurt and maybe a small patch for some bug fixes would be nice. I'm not holding my breath to it though since everything has pretty much become a drag.

Probably worth remembering that:
A, Maxis are working from home,
and B, the next pack is in the "voice/sound recording" stage (usually the last stage of development before a game is ready to ship). (Source: https://simscommunity.info/2020/03/04/the-sims-4s-9th-expansion-pack-is-in-the-final-stage-of-production/)

So, a patch for April is most likely coming, and it's pretty likely to be a pre-GP patch (if not April, then the May patch will be the pre-pack patch)

Maxis, as far as we're aware, is continuing on, business as usual.
Coronavirus probably created a few bumps in the road (which is why we didn't get a March patch, but we did get Gallery maintenence), but I don't think we'll see any significant delays. Adjusting to working from home probably accounted for a bit of a delay in development, but it's not like the game's been cancelled or anything crazy.

"Gordy;c-17438149" wrote:

"kwanzaabot;c-17437781" wrote:

"Gordy;c-17437777" wrote:

"kwanzaabot;c-17437774" wrote:

"Gordy;c-17437305" wrote:
Obligatory guess that we'll get dragons or whatever. Eh.

Prettttttty sure the RoM familiars fulfill EA's definition of "we did dragons already".

I can't accept those glorified drones as a substitute for the Sims 1 dragons. I hope that my incessant wishing will plant a seed that I will see harvest.

I wouldn't hold your breath, buddy.

Hell, I was hoping we'd see some modded familiars (dragons in other colours, maybe, or the ability for dragon familiars to start fires), but RoM modding died within like a month of the pack dropping.

I can still have hope. Even if it's false hope, I'll still hold onto it. I will never give up on my boy, Torch.

You have at least one ally dreaming of dragons. :)

"LeGardePourpre;c-17438730" wrote:
But they can't do a livestream from home... right ?

I mean from 3 or 4 SimGuru homes.

"@kwanzaabot;c-17438636" wrote:
Probably worth remembering that:
A, Maxis are working from home,
and B, the next pack is in the "voice/sound recording" stage (usually the last stage of development before a game is ready to ship). (Source: https://simscommunity.info/2020/03/04/the-sims-4s-9th-expansion-pack-is-in-the-final-stage-of-production/)

So, a patch for April is most likely coming, and it's pretty likely to be a pre-GP patch (if not April, then the May patch will be the pre-pack patch)

These news were before COVID-19, it's outdated now. The development process have been slow down since 2 weeks.

I don't know how voice/sound recording could be possible from home in particular the simlish songs with famous artists.

Depends on what equipment the person has at home. I have a friend who was contacted for some voice work just as everything was shutting down who mentioned it in passing - admittedly as a job he'd planned to pass on because he didn't think his home equipment was up to it, but the client wanted him to give it a try anyway. But the point I'm extracting from it here is that home studios *may* be a viable option, depending on the resources at said home studio.

Best case scenario: We finally get cops, burglars, and firefighters patched in and alien disguises are finally updated with the same linking options as vampire dark forms.

Most plausible scenario: We get some bug fixes and a social distancing-themed T-shirt

Most likely scenario: We get some bug fixes.

Worst case scenario: A bug fix patch that breaks the game in such a way that you can't even launch it, causing already cabin fever-stricken simmers to riot in the digital streets and spam the forums and all of the Sims Team's social media accounts with angry rants and threats of oblivion.

"LeGardePourpre;c-17438730" wrote:
But they can't do a livestream from home... right ?

I mean from 3 or 4 SimGuru homes.

"@kwanzaabot;c-17438636" wrote:
Probably worth remembering that:
A, Maxis are working from home,
and B, the next pack is in the "voice/sound recording" stage (usually the last stage of development before a game is ready to ship). (Source: https://simscommunity.info/2020/03/04/the-sims-4s-9th-expansion-pack-is-in-the-final-stage-of-production/)

So, a patch for April is most likely coming, and it's pretty likely to be a pre-GP patch (if not April, then the May patch will be the pre-pack patch)

These news were before COVID-19, it's outdated now. The development process have been slow down since 2 weeks.

I don't know how voice/sound recording could be possible from home in particular the simlish songs with famous artists.

You're assuming there'll be music in the next pack. Not every pack comes with a new radio station.
You're also assuming the recording hasn't already been done. They're hiring a Voice Editor, ie one that edits (it's in the name) audio that's already been recorded.

Lots of voice actors also own their own microphones. It's not unreasonable to suppose they can record their lines from home, with voice direction given over Skype.

I'm guessing we get 14 new models for toilet paper holders.

Releasing a Gameplay Pack in the near future seems to be an excellent idea from the fiscal point of view. I bet there'll be more people than usual who are willing to buy the pack at full price instead of waiting for a sale. We didn't get anything since the Tiny pack in January and people are spending more time at home due to the current situation.

It would make sense for something to be released before March 31st, but given the situation we are in with this virus I'm not counting on much of anything new coming our way before the end of April. We might see a small update in mid April with a few bug fixes, but anything larger than that might not be possible until we see a marked decrease in the number of new cases of COVID-19 being reported. Even with the stay at home order here in Washington we are seeing more new cases every day. The 14 day incubation period before the onset of symptoms is the main problem. It is going to take a month before we see any sign we're making some headway in getting this under control. And the idea this will happen by Easter is not a realistic one. I'll wait for new content if it means people will stay home, stay safe and stop this virus from spreading. Yes, the devs are set up to work from home, but how that changes the usual way they work is something we don't know anything about. This is a unique situation most of us have never experienced before. No doubt it has made a huge difference in how quickly the devs are able to finish whatever new content they were working on before this all started. It would be fun to have some new content to help take our minds off our new reality, but I'll wait and find other things to keep myself entertained if the game becomes boring. And, so far, that hasn't happened.

I don't know what is it, but we're getting a patch soon.

source: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/973899/the-sims-4-macos-notarization-faq#latest