More details on Sims 4 build mode

Here we go again with another official video on The Sims 4…

Sims 4 Build Mode official trailer

This looks way cool.  Some things that I spotted in my first viewing that weren’t explicitly pointed out by the narrator include:

• curved walls!!!
• trees that look like they’re from a swampy area with moss hanging down from the branches
• the streetcar is operational
• skills include grand piano and some kind of crafting at a workbench

Overall, it looks like the default town is based on architecture and styles found in and around New Orleans, right down to a model of the New Orleans St. Charles Line Streetcar.  There will likely be more info at E3, and I am eager to see more.

Are streetcars coming in The Sims 4?

So yesterday I put up a nice long post about this week’s live broadcast.  There was a digression in there about rapid transit systems in the game and how I would love to see a streetcar system added to the game.  Today at lunch I was looking at the new The Sims Official Magazine and reading a little more about The Sims 4, when one of the screenshots (admittedly, I had seen it before with the Gamescom coverage) caught my eye.  Here’s a smaller version of it (copied from The Sims official site, where it is labeled as “The Sims 4 Image #3”)…

That sure looks like a streetcar in front of the house, and if you look to the right of the street’s center island, you can see street trackage that continues off the screen to the right.  I absolutely love the look of this streetcar and desperately hope that I will be able to send my sims off to school, work or play via this new (to the game) transportation system.  But if it’s another free-to-ride system like the taxis in the current game, it will detract a bit from my perspective.

The only things missing from this screenshot for the streetcar system are the overhead wire and the trolley pole on the streetcar.  There have been streetcars built using battery or diesel engine powered cars, so a scene like this isn’t completely out of line, but streetcars powered from overhead wires are by far the most common type of systems used worldwide for the last 120 or more years.  I wonder…  Is there a railfan working on The Sims design team?