The new Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle expansion pack, which aims to get Sims living more eco-friendly lives, will bring pollution to all existing worlds – except for Strangerville and the destination worlds.
While the franchise’s ninth expansion has had mixed reactions, one of the appeals is the impact on the environment. One of the biggest criticisms of the pack was that it is using “recycled” (no pun intended) concepts from previous packs.
The Island Living expansion pack, released last year, featured similar gameplay, where Sims could “clean up” the island and watch wildlife increase and change. But that was restricted to Sulani.
Eco Lifestyle’s pollution effects and “community spaces” won’t just be restricted to Evergreen Harbour, the new world that’s coming with the pack.
Additionally, players will be able to pause some of the effects and change them per save file.
SimGuruFrost clarified this on Twitter after some confusion.
In response to a Tweet, he said that the gameplay will “affect every other world” players already own.
More details about the pack will be revealed in a live stream for a date yet to be confirmed. What we do know so far, though, is that a pre-release patch will bring ladders to The Sims 4 base game.
Many Simmers hope that further updates could include cars, too. Since there is very little to “cause pollution” in other worlds at present, it’d be fitting for a patch to add them in if the pollution will affect all worlds.
Why no pollution in Strangerville?
The complexities of programming this in means that Strangerville is excluded from the pollution effects from the new Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle expansion pack. The linear storyline that exists in the world already would make it more trouble than it’s worth.
But it should ease some fears from players who thought that the new expansion might have similar “mission style” features.
The Sims 4 will get eco-living with the new expansion on 5 June 2020, with the expansion set to be released across all platforms on the same date.