The best weather-related EP was for TS3. If EA has plans to add weather to TS4, I hope they use the weather from that EP as a template. The thunder and lightning storms were awesome, and the wind actually made one fear the roof would fly off at any moment. And I do believe the gurus are hinting there is weather coming our way soon. As someone commented earlier here, I have noticed a marked increase in the number of leaves falling in the worlds I play, too. As far as weather being too complicated to come to us in a patch? May I point out we received toddlers in a patch, and I imagine toddlers were a bit complicated as well, yet they were introduced without fanfare or hype, and cloaked in secrecy. At this point I wouldn't put anything past EA when it comes to TS4. Their usual manner of putting out EPs. SPs and GPs is very, very different from the way content was introduced and marketed in the past. We saw toddler hints in Dine Out yet there were Simmers who thought those hints meant nothing but wishful thinking. Code related to toddlers and pets was found, then revealed. And now we have toddlers, and pets are coming soon.
Last year there was much discussion about hints being used as a way to clue us in to what is coming. I am not a fan of this, but I have to admit It has me intrigued and I look at the trailers about upcoming content with new eyes. Without coming right out and telling us what to expect, EA is resorting to these hints in order to sidestep the new regulations regarding what can be announced in any given fiscal quarter. In the past, we were hanging on to ' leaks ' coming out of Europe and South America.( Funny how those have stopped.) So that leaves us with these hints we find in promotional trailers. And this latest trailer about Brindleton gave us a lot to think about. The first time I saw the trailer with the girl and her dog playing in a puddle, I did a double take and hit rewind. I must have watched it ten times before it dawned on me why that scene seemed 'off'. Where in blazes did that puddle come from? In the CAS part of the new Toddler Stuff Pack we have hooded sweatshirts which seems kinda strange when the weather is always sunny. They look very cute in their new hoodies but what other purpose could those have beyond protecting our wee ones from rain or cold? And the orange foliage on the trees in the background? Come on, you put that together with the weather references in the patch notes and it seems very obvious they are heavily hinting there is weather of some kind coming our way.
Let us not forget about the new color wheel coming with Dogs and Cats. I think this is something that should also be considered seeing as many, many Simmers were quite unhappy it was not included in the base game for TS4. I realize in the beginning it will be used mainly for the creation of pets, but I have to wonder if EA plans to expand it's functionality. There is a lot to think about with the next EP that is coming up.
