Crumplebottom Inbound! We get to bask in the glory of the Cottage Living Gameplay Livestream, and see what all of the fuss is about!
The World
There are three neighborhoods in the new Henford-On-Bagley world, each with their own unique features:
– Old New Henford, which features lots of space to sprawl out with the largest lots in the world;
– The Bramblewood, which is sort of the over-grown, forest area when you want to build a cottage right in the middle of nature;
– Finchwick Village, which is the, uh, hub of The H.O.B. Finchwick Village features Finchwick Fair, as well as playing host to the delightful Crumplebottoms.
Starting with Finchwick Village, you’ll notice the fairgrounds! Every week there are fairs and competitions happening, such as seeing who can grow the largest produce! These weekly fairs are listed in the Calendar – previously available with Seasons, but coming to Base Game!
The “new” calendar feature that is coming to base game will show you all of the festivals and fairs that are happening. You’ll be able to read a flyer explaining what the event is about, and it also provides options to travel directly there, provided that the event is currently running.
The village also is where you will find the Crumplebottom Gardening shop, where Agnes and Agatha take turns from day to day. (Agnes is obviously spending her days off growing oversized produce, which she probably somehow fits into her weaponized purse.)
You’ll find the village has villagers (who would have thought?!) that may require a bit of assistance from time to time – offering errands in exchange for various payments and goods.
Canning
Along with all of the new crops and harvestables comes canning! Pick your favorite ingredients and get cookin’! It looks like there will be at least 16 new jams, jellies, custards, etc that can be canned up and saved for later.
The Animals
There are so many new animals to discover! Out in the wild, there are bunnies, birds, and foxes to encounter.
Birds
Birds take roost as a flock that can be found within these trees. You can interact with and befriend the flock to unlock purchasing a tree for home garden use!
Rabbits
Rabbits work in a similar way – they occupy small tree stumps around the world. You can interact with rabbits to befriend them, and like birds, you can unlock the stump for home lot use.
Foxes
Foxes are actually part of the new Lot Challenge system. You can enable wild foxes to spawn on your lots, and they will periodically show up to cause trouble. Foxes are mostly interested in stealing – produce, eggs, chickens – and on the ugly side, they can even kill smaller animals like rabbits.
You can befriend foxes the same as other animals, and if the relationship is high enough, you can even ask them to stop stealing from you!
Moving on to the domesticated animals, that brings us to chickens, cows, and llamas!
Chickens
Chickens are stored in coops, with up to 8 chickens per coop. There are no limits to how many coops you can have. (Aside from your sim’s ability to take care of all of them!) Hens will lay eggs daily, and if you have a rooster in the same coop, you’ll even get some hatchable eggs!
There are a variety of treats available, too. Treats can be given to animals for various effects.
Cows & Llamas
Cows and Llamas both live in the animal pen. You may have one animal per pen, with no limits on pens.
Cows produce milk, and llamas produce wool. Each get their own treats, as well – cows can even have a special treat that gives them a rainbow coat! Llama treats, on the other hand, can turn a llama any color of the rainbow. As a little bonus, if you have llamas around, they will scare away foxes!
Lot Challenges
There are two new “Lot Challenges” coming with the pack – one of which is the Wild Foxes, as mentioned earlier. The other is “Simple Living” – you’ll only be able to cook things for which you actually have the ingredients! (There is no limit on how many Lot Challenges can be active at once – although only three exist at the moment.)
Coming soon to a farm near you!
There is a new aspiration coming with Cottage Living, called “Country Caretaker.” It’s geared up to be a sort of guide to walk you through some of the new features and gameplay aspects in the new pack.
We also get two new traits! Appropriately, they are “Animal Enthusiast” for the farm hands, and “Lactose Intolerant” for those unlucky sims.
Last but not least, check out the new water tool we are getting!
This allows you to dig holes of any size, and then you can set the water level to any point you’d like. It looks like water levels are going to be set on a per-pond basis. This is going to make for some very interesting landscaping! (And all of the pond-related FX that you can add! Wooh!)
Not to mention that, with the fishing sign, you can stock the ponds with any fish from your household to determine what can be caught there.
Keep your eyes out – Cottage Living will be available on July 22nd!
