Where was martial arts confirmed?

Hasn't been confirmed.

I was hoping that that sparring dummy thingy (similar to the one in ts3... although it was a better looking piece of equipment in that) meant that it was included, but probably not.

"Bagoas77;c-16964844" wrote:
I was hoping that that sparring dummy thingy (similar to the one in ts3... although it was a better looking piece of equipment in that) meant that it was included, but probably not.

Exactly. I hope the same. However, I've seen a handful of people say explicitly something along the lines of "Oh I am happy martial arts is back!" and it's just not true. This is the kind of thing that happens that leads to people being let down.

The exercise equipment is most likely just a object added for military training. I'd prefer they add martial arts in a themed pack it fits better in its a feature I want done right not some poorly done easily forgotten side feature.

I think it's just the training dummy? I never had my Sims spar with one another in S3 - they'd just do their daily workouts with the martial arts equipment. IIRC, the ability to meditate was part of the martial arts in S3, but it's in yoga in S4. A true martial arts feature should include the more spiritual aspect (otherwise, it's rather disrespectful), and again, that's covered in the wellness-yoga skill from Spa Day. (Which isn't to say that they shouldn't or couldn't do something similar with a fully-fleshed martial arts skill - I'm just not getting the feeling that they've done that in this pack.)