The Sims 4: Horse Ranch - Feature Overview Trailer Discussion Thread

I’m excited about horses, but I was a bit disappointed in the game trailer. I thought it would show a lot more. The world is beautiful, but still don’t know how large the areas where horses can travel are. I would have loved to see basket weaving, and someone mentioned a rocking horse for toddlers, that would have been so cute.

"Simmerville;c-18287145" wrote:
I think the pack comes with lots of new content, and I'm looking forward to playing it although I'm not that much of a horse person. Most of the comments on how little it contains and that it should be a GP seems a bit unfair to me. I just noticed that the old Get Famous pack was an EP. I think Horse Ranch already offers so much more in term of features. I love GF, and I use the fame system for many aspects outside the celebrity sphere, but if it was not for my ability to find extreme cross pack functionality, GF would mainly be about getting film gigs, and I would play it very rarely. With HR we also get sheep, goats and nectar making, all of those will get a lot of attention in my game, with sheep farms and goat business in other worlds, and naturally an upgrade of my numerous existing nectar yards. Also, my traveling club will head to Chestnut Ridge with their tour guide, and I plan a new "ranch high school" where teens will move in to tend to horses while also studying. I might also have a political situation in my game where a group of politicians will protest to the ongoing modernizing of CR involving taking from the national park for commerce (didn't I just spot my elderly Malcolm Landgraab leaving a meeting room with a fat grin on his face?). Malcolm's wife leads one of the Equestrian clubs, they might be up to something. And my aristocracy involving the royals will of course be into some snobby riding. I mean, try to see beyond the trailer - a pack is not just a pack - most simmers will see it as a tool that allows us to add lots of game play that EA never even thought of. It's us that hold the reins, EA just prepare the ground :)

This is a very good example you gave! And I like the story you came up with!
I saw some saying careers would give it more value but I beg to differ.
I love get famous too but I probably only played through the career once or twice. I've just been cheating fame on sims after that. And the same with the active careers in get to work. I could only do the same thing over and over and over so many times ? lol.
I'm genuinely curious how often players use them. I'd love to see an official survey on it just out of curiosity.

When the team gives us tools and content to play around with and creatively make our own things I end up playing with it for years. Because each time I play with a feature I change the story around it, or use it in a different way. I still wish we could make our own police station and doctors office or hospitals and use the features that come with the career without being a part of it. It's a waste of good features I'd love to use ?

I can already tell I'll be using everything in this horse pack very often and I have like a million ideas on how I want to use them.
The Sims always required a dose of imagination.

"GrumpyGlowfish;c-18286569" wrote:
and if horses can exist outside of Chestnut Ridge (which I have no doubt they can, but many people on YouTube and Twitter think otherwise and keep stating their opinions as facts - a little word on that subject from the developers would go a long way).

I also think horses will be available in any world, just like cats, dogs, cows, llamas and so on.
The only thing being tied to chestnut ridge is probly the lot where the competitions are held, just like the fairs in henford.
And we can probly ride the horses anywhere where we're able to ride bikes, since there are no cars in the worlds there is no reason not to be able to ride on the streets.

I am hoping tho that we can make some sort of "horse park" or at least place training stuff (like the barrels) on other lots, so the training isnt just available at chestnut ridge.

It looks like we will get to build our own stalls in the barn, which is pretty awesome!

"RavenSpit;c-18287275" wrote:

"GrumpyGlowfish;c-18286569" wrote:
and if horses can exist outside of Chestnut Ridge (which I have no doubt they can, but many people on YouTube and Twitter think otherwise and keep stating their opinions as facts - a little word on that subject from the developers would go a long way).

I also think horses will be available in any world, just like cats, dogs, cows, llamas and so on.
The only thing being tied to chestnut ridge is probly the lot where the competitions are held, just like the fairs in henford.
And we can probly ride the horses anywhere where we're able to ride bikes, since there are no cars in the worlds there is no reason not to be able to ride on the streets.

I am hoping tho that we can make some sort of "horse park" or at least place training stuff (like the barrels) on other lots, so the training isnt just available at chestnut ridge.

Yeah, I think we will be able to use horses in other worlds too, there are some pretty big lots on some worlds. Even DU with their small lots we could make like a barn like bottom floor, and build up and down. Our sims would just have to take their horses around the neighborhood to give their horses exercise. I like the lambs and goats too. I’m thinking of giving one of my families with a toddler a little goat. They are so cute.

"telemwill;c-18286535" wrote:
I'm sure horses and the minis will be fun, but as someone who wasn't a horse girl, I was hoping for more. Definitely I will buy this pack, but I'm not sure I'll get it full price.

Simply adding a pool table, a rocking horse for the toddlers and kids, maybe a diving board (pools will be desirable in such a hot world) would push it into must have now territory. Not saying those things exactly, but just two or three other small items.

It looks lovely for sure. Just left feeling unsatisfied. I'm hoping the Livestream shows more.

Ah for some reason everything I wrote disappeared ?. Let's try this again.

I love your mention of a rocking horse. I think one of those horses with wheels that toddlers, and myb kids, can bounce on to make move like they're really riding it, would be really great too.

I was also pretty disappointed by the trailer. It didn't seem like it really showed us anything new. And actually seemed to just take the things we already knew and only mention a portion of them.

Even when it came to hints from the previous trailer, they were either only slightly expounded on, or kind of lazily added in. Like the infant in the unicorn onsie. They're back in this one, but you can't even tell it's a unicorn onsie bc you only see the back of them in their parent's arms. If it wasn't the same onsie, and the only infant we saw in both (I think we saw at least 1 toddler but I think that's the only infant); there'd be no reason to assume it was the unicorn hint baby.
We get more about the old guy who had the magic nectar, and that's cool.

But other than that the only thing I really caught was that one Sim owns the equestrian center. And that stood out to me bc right now we can't own businesses like that. Not things that are inherent to worlds, not like in previous games.
You can't even have your own Cafe. The best you can do is make a quasi bakery with GtW.

So that stood out. I know for awhile people were wondering if we'd get a business update, hotels, even I was wondering if we would finally get a GtW refresh. This might just be sims lore and not an actual game mechanic.

But that did make me wonder, bc what happens when that sim dies? What if you break up their family, and/or marry in to that family? Who owns it then?

That bit was more interesting than pretty much all the parts about the actual pack to me. Which was pretty depressing given how excited I was for it. And the fact that I got it as a birthday gift. That gameplay trailer is making me wish I'd gotten something else. I really thought there was gonna be a lot more depth. Hopefully they show more in the livestream.

"SimDestroyer;c-18286601" wrote:
Honestly, kind of miss the times when expansion packs had like 4 (later 2) separate gameplay trailers. But I guess the devs want to put more emphasis on the livestreams now.

Overall, the trailer left me cold. A lot of the stuff seems a bit... surface level? Like yeah, you can make nectar, and it'll be bad at first, then better as you learn more, and you can sell it... but anything else? Is there an aging system? Like, the older the nectar the better it is? Can you mix and match ingredients, do experiments, host or visit nectar tasting events? (That isn't just inviting sims over and pretending they're giving out reviews lol.) If nectar making is the only big skill here, then it surely must be a bit more in depth than cooking and mixology are, right?

And HOW do the competitions work? How do you sign up? Is there a preliminary period where you have to learn certain things with your horse to ensure greater succeess? Can there be rivalries..? Do you gain some sort of reputation when you win a competition? Or what?

And the mini animals where barely in the trailer, I feel like. Yes, you can feed them, pet them, clean them, whatever. But can you do anything with the wool of a mini sheep? Make clothing? Intergrate it with nifty knitting? Can you form deep relationships with them as well?

The trailer also didn't really showcase anything new that we haven't seen yet, and alongside leaving things in the dark, it's not a good way to assure me that it is worth the price. (Though, have any of the EPs ever been?)

Heavy on the nectar system. When the sim was like "I was really bad at first but now I'm making good stuff," I was like 'yes you mean like gaining literally any skill, especially food related ones.' I had already expected all the sims to suck except maybe foodie sims. Or if they release a new trait that includes making drinks better, so you're better at mixology, fizzing, and nectar making. You know?
(On the subject of traits are there gonna be more traits for sims in general? We already saw some of the horse traits in that behind the sims.)
I wanted to know if things like having higher skills in cooking, gourmet cooking, mixology, juice fizzing, and gardening might transfer over to the nectar making skill/how fast it builds. Sims with no skills having no boost, but sims who already can make drinks, and grow ingredients should have a leg up.

The blog mentioned the ability to age nectar and it being able to be sold for more. And we saw that one sim come back to life. What about that potion subset for spellcasters? Are they gonna be better at nectar making because it's basically a potion for everyday? Would vampires be better at making high quality plasma fruit nectar?

The mini animals confused me. I obviously want to know more about them. But they described them as mini not baby. And then this trailer had the sim giving one a bottle if I'm remembering right. And I was like, ok then that's a baby. But we're supposedly milking these and shearing these? Do we get them as babies and then they grow to be their full mini size, and can then milk and shear them?

Like it really feels like they decided to answer not one single question in this trailer, knowing that everyone expected at least some questions to be answered. And now the only way to get them is to check out the livestream, and/or wait for the simmers who get to try the packs early to tell us. In the meantime there's the early order bonuses and trying to hype it up.

"LSM36;c-18287328" wrote:

"SimDestroyer;c-18286601" wrote:
Honestly, kind of miss the times when expansion packs had like 4 (later 2) separate gameplay trailers. But I guess the devs want to put more emphasis on the livestreams now.

Overall, the trailer left me cold. A lot of the stuff seems a bit... surface level? Like yeah, you can make nectar, and it'll be bad at first, then better as you learn more, and you can sell it... but anything else? Is there an aging system? Like, the older the nectar the better it is? Can you mix and match ingredients, do experiments, host or visit nectar tasting events? (That isn't just inviting sims over and pretending they're giving out reviews lol.) If nectar making is the only big skill here, then it surely must be a bit more in depth than cooking and mixology are, right?

And HOW do the competitions work? How do you sign up? Is there a preliminary period where you have to learn certain things with your horse to ensure greater succeess? Can there be rivalries..? Do you gain some sort of reputation when you win a competition? Or what?

And the mini animals where barely in the trailer, I feel like. Yes, you can feed them, pet them, clean them, whatever. But can you do anything with the wool of a mini sheep? Make clothing? Intergrate it with nifty knitting? Can you form deep relationships with them as well?

The trailer also didn't really showcase anything new that we haven't seen yet, and alongside leaving things in the dark, it's not a good way to assure me that it is worth the price. (Though, have any of the EPs ever been?)

Heavy on the nectar system. When the sim was like "I was really bad at first but now I'm making good stuff," I was like 'yes you mean like gaining literally any skill, especially food related ones.' I had already expected all the sims to suck except maybe foodie sims. Or if they release a new trait that includes making drinks better, so you're better at mixology, fizzing, and nectar making. You know?
(On the subject of traits are there gonna be more traits for sims in general? We already saw some of the horse traits in that behind the sims.)
I wanted to know if things like having higher skills in cooking, gourmet cooking, mixology, juice fizzing, and gardening might transfer over to the nectar making skill/how fast it builds. Sims with no skills having no boost, but sims who already can make drinks, and grow ingredients should have a leg up.

The blog mentioned the ability to age nectar and it being able to be sold for more. And we saw that one sim come back to life. What about that potion subset for spellcasters? Are they gonna be better at nectar making because it's basically a potion for everyday? Would vampires be better at making high quality plasma fruit nectar?

The mini animals confused me. I obviously want to know more about them. But they described them as mini not baby. And then this trailer had the sim giving one a bottle if I'm remembering right. And I was like, ok then that's a baby. But we're supposedly milking these and shearing these? Do we get them as babies and then they grow to be their full mini size, and can then milk and shear them?

Like it really feels like they decided to answer not one single question in this trailer, knowing that everyone expected at least some questions to be answered. And now the only way to get them is to check out the livestream, and/or wait for the simmers who get to try the packs early to tell us. In the meantime there's the early order bonuses and trying to hype it up.

Also are we getting lot traits? I don't think that'd be in the trailer necessarily. But we did see them renovate their lot. So they could've hinted. I was just thinking that a lot of these could benefit from certain traits like the tiny house traits. But bc you're gonna have horses, even if you do have that tiny house for your family, the barn will put you over. But there could be new traits for that. And you could get benefits.

"SheriSim57;c-18287288" wrote:


Yeah, I think we will be able to use horses in other worlds too, there are some pretty big lots on some worlds. Even DU with their small lots we could make like a barn like bottom floor, and build up and down. Our sims would just have to take their horses around the neighborhood to give their horses exercise. I like the lambs and goats too. I’m thinking of giving one of my families with a toddler a little goat. They are so cute.

Exactly, there is this really big lot in copperdale that I would love to turn into a "horse park", cuz my vet family there needs a horse, naturally.

The goats are so darn cute, the witch in my avatar is gonna get a black one, already decided :)

Edit: I wonder if there will be riding trails in chestnut ridge, like the hiking trails in mt.k and walking in san sequoia...

@LSM36
I did hear them say a Sim owned the equestrian center. If that means it's a lot type our played Sims can actually own and operate than that would definitely move the pack up in my estimation. Basically that's a new active career.

I thought it would be more like how the Scott's own the pub in Cottage Living. That type of ownership is actually annoying because if you play the family, they no longer own it. I like to play with premades and make neighborhood stories, so it spoils it a bit to have premades I can't play. And I can never give the Scotts the baby they want so much. I love everything else about Cottage Living though.