Sims 4 Horse Ranch info Thread

Livestream is on July 14. That's next week. I'll try to be there and share as much info as I can from there.

I'll also do some recap on blog posts that have been shared.

From Saddle Up with The Sims 4 Horse Ranch Expansion Pack:

• The new world, Chestnut Ridge.
  
  • Inspiration from American West.
    
  • Contains a bar, a dance hall, and a equestrian park.
    
  • Known neighborhoods:
    
    • New Appaloosa - The downtown area.
      
    • Riders' Glen - the ranches' neighborhood.
      
    • Galloping Gulch - the national park neighborhood.
    
    
  • Somewhere in the world is Dreadhorse Caverns where sims can go into and explore.
  
  
• Besides horses, there are also Mini Sheep and Mini Goats.
  
• Prairie Grass can be harvested for the Animal Feeder.
  
• Ranch Hand can be hired to help out with the ranch activities.
  
• Nectar making:
  
  • Fruits, potatoes, and trash (unclear if it's garbage pile or Trash Fruit) can be used to make nectar.
    
  • One bottled nectar can be consumed in multiple servings. It looks like sims pour it in glasses (not like with fizzy juice where it is drunk straight out of bottle).
    
  • Each have different effects. One of them can resurrect sims (shown in the trailer).
    
  • There are also nectar racks where sims can age bottled nectar.
  
  
• Two new social events: Ranch Gathering and Ranch Animal Day.
  
• Horses:
  
  • Can be customized through CAS like cats and dogs.
    
  • Horses can also be obtained by rescuing, breeding, or purchasing them.
    
  • Each horse has its own personality.
    
  • Foals can be born. They are combination of both parents and may even unlock a unique trait.
    
  • Horses have four skills:
    
    • Temperament
      
    • Agility - Developed by practicing on Horse Barrels.
      
    • Jumping - Developed by practicing on Horse Jumps.
      
    • Endurance
    
    
  • Competitions take place at the Equestrian Center, where your sim could win Simoleons, plagues for walls, and metal signs for Ranch Signs. The competitions culminate in the Ultimate Horse Championship.

From Behind The Sims:

• Horses:
  
  • Adding horses posed many challenges as it is a new species.
    
  • Horse traits (detailed somewhere in the discussion) and an ability to create foals in CAS. Then again, it shows footage early in development, so more info in the livestream.
    
  • Banking animations were added so they maintain the natural graceful look when running around tight corners.
    
  • Human actors were casted to voice horses to incorporate more nuanced emotional performances.
    
  • Foals stumble a lot.
  
  
• New riding skill. Sims beginning will look a little awkward on a horse.
  
• Children can ride horses.
  
• Sims can talk to other sims while riding a horse.
  
• A good relationship with horses helps with training. They went with the approach of "bonding with horses".

From Gameplay Trailer:

• Sienna is the horse trainer and owner of the equestrian center.
  
• Each horse has their own personality, but that's something known.
  
• A good relationship with horses makes it easier to practice skills.
  
• The horse play ball returns from The Sims 3.
  
• The community board can be used to hire a Ranch Hand and to check out horses for sale or adoption.
  
• Instead of putting on swimwear, sims remove their shoes when stomping nectar.
  
• The nectar can affect emotions. It seems like strawberry makes sims flirty while grapes make sims confident.
  
• Roberto Crinkletop has a secret nectar recipe.

Also under spoilers, some little things people have noticed and shared here:

"AncientMuse;c-18279790" wrote:
I think I spotted the secret cavern(s) mentioned in the official blog post....

WARNING! Don't click on the spoiler below if you want to keep the location a mystery until you play the pack!

Spoiler

It's located directly beneath the natural bridge by the waterfalls (next to the creek running under the bridge).

I just can't help myself, I love playing 'detective' with all the screenshots and reveal trailers, zooming in and out trying to spot all the new assets and possible gameplay items....

It's like playing the Sims version of a hidden object game. :D

"EgonVM;c-18282486" wrote:
Horse traits from Behind the Sims:

• Aggressive
  
• Brave
  
• Defiant
  
• Energetic
  
• Fearful
  
• Free Spirit
  
• Friendly
  
• Independent
  
• Intelligent
  
• Mellow
  
• Needy

"EgonVM;c-18282600" wrote:

"Gordy;c-18282527" wrote:
https://i.imgur.com/df8H3rR.png
It looks like there are four different types of competitions, plus the Grand Championship. It'll be recorded in the horse's bio.

I took a closer look at horses' Sim Profile concept. I like what I see, seeing as they aren't controllable in the final product (in one live mode gameplay footage, you can see that whistle icon on the horse icon in Sim Chooser, the same one cats and dogs have), and I hope they add the same things to cats and dogs.

• First there's aging bar for the horses. That would also be great for cats and dogs! You can also access family tree from there.
  
• Then there are traits (which is already in game). What I see for horses is that they have a breedable trait (which I guess gets passed down from parent to foal) and special trait (which could simply be reward traits).
  
• Then there are skills, which I guess stays as horse-exclusive info. I'm guessing learned behaviors and tricks could be there for cats and dogs.
  
• Relationship panel for the horse. That is interesting thing to see.
  
• And finally, there's accolades.

I do hope cats and dogs get an updated sim info panel too...

"Childrenofhurin;c-18287446" wrote:
From the trailers there seem to be at least 13 different types of nectar. The black-labelled bottles seem to be occult-themed.

https://i.ibb.co/Lkk8kt0/Nectar-Bottles.png

They look like:
1- Grape
2- Apple
3- Strawberry
4- The flower from a valerian plant (Realm of Magic)
5- Prairie Grass?
6- Unspecified?
7- Unspecified?
8- Heart, unspecified? (It's hard to tell in the trailer since the hand is covering the label but this seems to match the bottle that brings the ghost sim back to life)
9- Lemon or potato?
10- Plasma fruit (Vampires)
11, 12, 13- No idea for the first, the second could be moonflower (Werewolves), the third is very hard to see, it might be a bee (honey)?