Saddle Up! The Horse Ranch Gameplay Livestream is here – check it out:
Chestnut Ridge
Take a look around the new world of Chestnut Ridge! There are three new areas, each with a different style.
Galloping Gulch – some classic “American West” style trails through canyons and along gorges.
New Appaloosa – The picturesque American-styled western small town.
Rider’s Glen – Residential country farmland.
Horses
The star of the show! (Well, until you see a fainting goat, probably.) Horses can be adopted/rescued, or created in Create-A-Horse.
There are a ton of preset horses, varying in both size and coat. The preset coats feature up to 5 color channels for customizing the look of your new equine friend.
Fear not – paint mode is available, too!
Horses are fully customizable, including their physical size/stature, mane/tail, etc. There is also riding gear, such as saddles and blankets. (Most of which is American-West themed, but there are some English items as well.)
Horses have a handful of new traits, such as being “Brave” or “Aggressive.” Some traits also disable other conflicting traits. For example, an “Aggressive” horse cannot also be “Friendly.” There are even some traits that are exclusive from breeding! (And yes – horses can breed and have foals!)
Mini-Sheet & Mini-Goats
An adorable addition making their appearance in the Horse Ranch Gameplay Livestream, we have goats and sheep!
They can be adopted/rescued like horses, and appear in that sims’ inventory for placement in the world. The come in a variety of different colors (and at different prices!) but are not customizable like cats, dogs, or horses are.
Why do the black sheep cost so much? It’s a mystery…
The goats and sheep can also provide wool and milk, which can either be sold, or used with aspects of Cottage Living.
Nectar
What would ranch life be like without tending to some farmland? Grow your own crops and learn to make different types of nectar – everything from fruit, vegetables, and even trash!
Ranch gatherings
Mentioned, but not really shown, there are two new social events referred to as “Ranch Days.” One is animal-based, and one is not.
The animal-based ranch day event is all about inviting friends and neighbors over to see and interact with the animals you’re raising on your ranch. Guests can even contribute donations to help you run your ranch!
The other non-animal-based ranch gathering is more of just a general social gathering, inviting everyone over to your ranch to hang out and have a good time.
Build/Buy Mode Updates
The biggest new build mode change coming with the Horse Ranch expansion pack is – drum roll – customizable ceilings!
There is a toggle in the flooring catalog that controls if you are applying the floor to the actual floor, or to the ceiling below.
When in ceiling mode, the ceiling becomes visible as the floor on the level above it, simply for visibility purposes. This allows you more control over seeing what tiles you’ve placed, and where you’ve placed them. Any ceiling lights on the floor below will also be visible for that same purpose.
The ceiling tiles of the level below are being displayed, while the flooring of the upper level is hidden.
Ceiling tiles of a lower level and the floor tiles of the level above can be different, it seems that the floor above is not automatically applied to the ceiling below.
The only thing that remains unclear is if the ceiling tiles are actually separate items than floor tiles. In the livestream, they say that “we’ve got pretty much any floor tile that you have in game” which makes it sound as if the ceiling tiles are a separate (albeit, largely duplicated) collection of textures, and that the library of floor tiles vs ceiling tiles are not quite 1:1.
In addition to ceilings, the tab-mode camera is now also going to be available in build mode! This will provide an alternate angle so that you can adjust the camera angle to look up at the ceilings while placing them!
Lastly, in amongst all of the new build/buy content that packs bring, we’re getting some specific barn doors for medium and tall height walls that sims can ride their horses through. This will allow significantly more build customizations for barns/stalls/etc!
If the appropriate doors are used, sims can ride their horses indoors!
The Sims 4: Horse Ranch expansion pack will release on July 20th, 2023. It will be available on all supported platforms for PC/Mac, XBox, and Playstation.
