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A horse pack could be coming sooner rather than later.
SappySifaka
Posts: 132 Member
We're fresh off of the Cottage Living release, but there are a couple of things that have caught my attention that could point towards a horse pack coming sooner rather than later.
1st: Hidden away in the male CAS from Dream Home Decorator are three swatches of a sweater that feature a horse pattern. These swatches are conspicuously not the main swatch, so you wouldn't even notice the horse pattern if you scrolled by the item without looked through all the swatches. Also, this style doesn't fit in with the general aesthetic of Dream Home Decorator, imo.
horse sweater by Sappy Sifaka, on Flickr
2nd: Back in May, before the announcement of Cottage Living, SimsVIP reported that country singer Caylee Hammack had posted a tweet about recording one of her songs in Similish. The tweet featured a fairy emoji, which led people to expect that fairies would be coming in the next pack, but that was ultimately not the case. In the tweeted video, Caylee said that she played "sims farm" as a kid...This led me to believe that she was working with the team for the Cottage Living pack, had a Freudian slip, and that her song would be featured in the new "Cottagecore" station.
You can read the SimsVIP article here https://simsvip.com/2021/05/30/the-sims-4-caylee-hammack-shares-simlish-clip/
Long story short, her song was not added in with the Cottage Living "Cottagecore" station, as you can tell from the Music Manager in the game settings. So, either the team just scrapped her song, or it was recorded for a different pack. She is also a country artist, and, as far as I can tell, there is no generic "country" radio station in the Sims 4 yet. Bearing that in mind, one could reasonably expect that the team might choose a cliche Americana/country theme for a horse pack and include a new country station with said pack. That would heavily contrast the provincial European theme of Cottage Living and give them stronger justification for making horses a separate pack.
Cottagecore by Sappy Sifaka, on Flickr
Personally, I'm not a fan of Americana-theming or American country music vibes, but that's just me. I'd rather a horse pack feature just about any other aesthetic (but especially Medieval), so I'm hoping I'm wrong with the theme speculation. If I am correct, then I'm mainly interested in the quality of design and gameplay regarding the horses themselves. But, to be fair, country music is popular globally, and its presence doesn't necessarily indicate an Americana theme. However, it does seem likely considering the dev team's past choices (Sims 3 Pets) and the cultural prevalence of American cowboys/cowgirls and the Kentucky Derby.
I cannot imagine that EA would release this pack next. Releasing it right after Cottage Living would anger a large swath of the community. Even if this speculation is correct, the pack could still be far off. There also remains the question of why the singer (Caylee) chose a fairy emoji for her tweet. Maybe there is in fact a fairy pack coming, and not horses. Maybe both. Maybe neither. What do you think?
Note: If anyone from EA sees this... horses should, without doubt, be integrated into the Veteraniran skill from Pets.
1st: Hidden away in the male CAS from Dream Home Decorator are three swatches of a sweater that feature a horse pattern. These swatches are conspicuously not the main swatch, so you wouldn't even notice the horse pattern if you scrolled by the item without looked through all the swatches. Also, this style doesn't fit in with the general aesthetic of Dream Home Decorator, imo.
horse sweater by Sappy Sifaka, on Flickr2nd: Back in May, before the announcement of Cottage Living, SimsVIP reported that country singer Caylee Hammack had posted a tweet about recording one of her songs in Similish. The tweet featured a fairy emoji, which led people to expect that fairies would be coming in the next pack, but that was ultimately not the case. In the tweeted video, Caylee said that she played "sims farm" as a kid...This led me to believe that she was working with the team for the Cottage Living pack, had a Freudian slip, and that her song would be featured in the new "Cottagecore" station.
You can read the SimsVIP article here https://simsvip.com/2021/05/30/the-sims-4-caylee-hammack-shares-simlish-clip/
Long story short, her song was not added in with the Cottage Living "Cottagecore" station, as you can tell from the Music Manager in the game settings. So, either the team just scrapped her song, or it was recorded for a different pack. She is also a country artist, and, as far as I can tell, there is no generic "country" radio station in the Sims 4 yet. Bearing that in mind, one could reasonably expect that the team might choose a cliche Americana/country theme for a horse pack and include a new country station with said pack. That would heavily contrast the provincial European theme of Cottage Living and give them stronger justification for making horses a separate pack.
Cottagecore by Sappy Sifaka, on FlickrPersonally, I'm not a fan of Americana-theming or American country music vibes, but that's just me. I'd rather a horse pack feature just about any other aesthetic (but especially Medieval), so I'm hoping I'm wrong with the theme speculation. If I am correct, then I'm mainly interested in the quality of design and gameplay regarding the horses themselves. But, to be fair, country music is popular globally, and its presence doesn't necessarily indicate an Americana theme. However, it does seem likely considering the dev team's past choices (Sims 3 Pets) and the cultural prevalence of American cowboys/cowgirls and the Kentucky Derby.
I cannot imagine that EA would release this pack next. Releasing it right after Cottage Living would anger a large swath of the community. Even if this speculation is correct, the pack could still be far off. There also remains the question of why the singer (Caylee) chose a fairy emoji for her tweet. Maybe there is in fact a fairy pack coming, and not horses. Maybe both. Maybe neither. What do you think?
Note: If anyone from EA sees this... horses should, without doubt, be integrated into the Veteraniran skill from Pets.
Post edited by SappySifaka on
6
Comments
I think Australia could be one alternative. It parallels some of the Americana visual aesthetic and has a strong country music scene. However, it lacks the cultural power of American cowboys and the Kentucky Derby, both of which make Americana a great choice for horses. Heck, even Queen Elizabeth has traveled to the US to talk horses.
South America (Argentina in particular) is world renowned for their highly skilled gauchos (cowboys, horsemen) and the ranching/gaucho way of life.
Mongolians are also world renowned for their skilled horsemen and ranching/nomadic way of life.
Its also worth noting that the American cowboy got its start from the Mexican vaqueros (cowboys). Without that Mexican/Spanish influence and teaching the new settlers their horse ranching skills, gunslingers like Wild Bill Hickok and Annie Oakley would've just ended up becoming bakers and candlestick makers.
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." ~ Mark Twain
Horse pattern may be a hint, yes... But I wouldn't say it doesn't fit DHD aesthetics completely, because this packs seems to be Scandinavian-inspired, and this horses look a lot like Dala horses, a very Swedish thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalecarlian_horse?wprov=sfla1
Oh yes that's true. That would be cool if it was Mexican or South American themed.
Any of those three would be fantastic! I was initially inclined to think it could be Central or South American themed based on the design of the horse pattern (although seemingly it also resembles a traditional Swedish style). The question is, why would a typical American country singer like Caylee be tapped for a recording in a Mexican, Central American, or South American-themed pack? That is assuming the two are related at all.
They could always do a non-descript pack with a mash-up of various horse-centric cultures, which could be cool. Although non-descript themes are harder to market, so that's doubtful Either way, I'd love to see some more cultural representation in this game that is not American. The team is on a good roll right now with Snowy Escape and even Cottage Living, but the game is still sorely lacking cultural diversity (especially African).
Was it added with DHD? I didn't even know Dream Home Decorator came with a radio station or station update. I could be wrong. I'll have to double-check on that.
Maybe a Mexican and southern US mash up would make more sense.
I think this too. There’s lots of Princess Cordelia references and ship references in CoL and I’d love it if we could become pirate horse breeders in a medieval pack!
TBH this would be my preferred introduction for horses in the Sims 4. A medieval pack is dang near my number one desire for a pack at this point, and you're right, horses would fit in perfectly with one.
Yes please.
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." ~ Mark Twain
MFP was suffering from several issues:
- the furniture was the same style than Cats and Dogs
- there was new clothing and Cats and Dogs objects added with that pack so even though they didn't make it an official requirement, there was actually not much to that pack if you don't own Cats and Dogs
- the small animals that came with were actually not that hard to programm that they couldn't have possible been included in cats and dogs
- the amount of small animals was severly limited in comparision to TS3
- there were no basic meshes for the pet cages that would make them fit into more styles of builds
I don't see how a horses pack would suffer from these issues.
As I have said before, a fairies and horses pack would be a great combination as horses came together with unicorns in TS3 and these would go very well with fairies. Also fairies have already been done in the Sims mobile so they could copy most of the ideas from there and save some time thus. This could possibly fit the size of a Gameplay pack or Expansion pack.
Agree. I am SO ready for another GOOD occult pack. RoM wasn't what is could have been for me. Spellcasters/witches/wizards are my favorite occult type, but RoM was by far one of my biggest letdowns. I like parts of it, but overall it didn't have the wow factor for me. So I'd love a werewolf pack up to the standard of Vampires. Fairies would also be cool if done well.
I feel that. Especially because Snowy Escape in particular is almost ENTIRELY tied to Mt. Komerbi. At least world exclusive gameplay was more limited in CL and EL. They both expanded gameplay in all worlds significantly more than Snowy Escape.
Generations or Hotels (really any pack without a new world) is what I'm interested in right now. I want a pack that is entirely playable and useful in every world.
I can already imagine the backlash if horses would be a part of another pack especially after cottage living release
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/924539/features-that-needs-depth-and-ways-to-improve
I don't think the horses on the shirt in DHD is a hint. I agree with @somewhsome that the horse on the shirt is very popular Scandinavian thing. And since that pack was inspired by Scandinavian design I think that's why they included a swatch with it. Doing a Google search for images of "Scandinavian Horse Design" shows pics of horses in that same style
The song by Caylee Hammack was part of the Dream Home Decorator pack.
https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_songs_in_The_Sims_4