Author: Carl

Today was the September 2019 Maxis Monthly, in celebration of the fifth anniversary of The Sims 4. Players on PC/Mac will receive the following on September 5, while console players will be getting it in a few weeks, most likely. A video version of the guide is Available here: Maxis Monthly September 2019 Livestream Summary

We started with build/buy assets – a new gnome drink holder table, frosted glass end-tables and lounge chairs for base game players. These were currently only available to players who owned Island Living.

These new planters are very nice, and snap together so you can make walls of them to decorate the outside (or inside) of your home.

Lighted fencing posts add a little glow to night-time on the deck, and angled lights can be used to illuminate parts of the house.

Items like this picnic table and new chairs have Sims-y patterns but do include regular, everyday looks so that you don’t grow sick of the plumbob patterns.

Sims can finally dress their Sims in traditional Muslim garb, with hijab for women and men getting kufi. The hijab is not connected to the outfit this Sim is wearing, but will rather go with any outfit. We assume it’s kind of a ‘hat’.

Next up was a new staircase tool. This is going to let you use the dongles to drag stairs into segmented blocks with turns and T-intersections however you see fit. You can go absolutely crazy with this thing, and it showed when SimGuruGraham later pulled up a house that had incorporated it extensively. Sims apparently pathfind on these just fine.

Finally, Arab inspired architecture was shown – new open archways, double doors and middle-eastern themed windows all feature heavily on this house that also has that plaster wall look. Someone tell me exactly what you’d call this if you feel so inclined.

This week has been bittersweet. The guide and our forum turned 10 years old, as did my relationship with The Sims. As we tried to honor that day given our community has fostered many friendships, I was buried in server issues that many of you may have noticed early Sunday morning (US).

Thankfully I believe I have the troubling issues fixed. Though we may have a few more bumps, I don’t expect anything to be that bad (but then I didn’t in the first place). Regardless we are at the moment quite ready to cover Realm of Magic and excited to get the chance.

The news system is going to help a lot with that, and it’s set to light up a bit this week. Tuesday we have the Sims 4’s fifth anniversary acknowledgment and will have new objects and CAS assets coming to the game for all players. I’ll be covering that in a video guide, and I’ll also make a post here about what’s added so check back if you’re interested.

Friday The Sims team will be doing a livestream of The Sims 4 Realm of Magic, as well:

Save the date! Join us on Friday, September 6th @ 11AM PT for our #TheSims4 Realm of Magic Livestream w/ hosts, @SimGuruRomeo and @SimGuruNinja! We will uncover all the secrets and mysteries that Glimmerbrook has to offer. ✨https://t.co/scyPeyjn0f

— Wizenheimer (@SimGuruFrost) August 26, 2019

We learned there’s a new death, and I’m looking forward to seeing how that plays out! It’s also possible for Sims who pursue spellcasting to overmax and learn every one of the pack’s 24 spells. We will do a thorough coverage of Realm of Magic on the evening of the 6th to summarize all the other tidbits we learn, and I’ll be sure to share some here as well for people who don’t like videos.

I apologize for the rockiness this past week, but do think we are in a better place now that some necessary improvements are in play. So hey that’s something. The best part is I picked up plenty of new tricks that save me time and let me do unique things on the site. When we build up enough articles, we’ll be enabling people to browse all the posts about a particular topic so things will be well organized and, if we succeed, very helpful.

We’ve learned a couple things we failed to notice back on Realm of Magic’s announcement day that I’d like to share here. I need to update the RoM main page with this info, but it’s neat to be able to use this new News System to share information with the community. Thanks for your patience this past few days as I ironed out problems. I’m not 100% sure I’ve fixed everything but I’ll continue to look for errors.

Spellcasters in RoM can have up to three curses. At first, this sounds a bit like the Sims 4 Vampires’ weakness system or Fame Quirks from The Sims 4 Get Famous, but there’s a key difference. This system applies a curse whenever your Sim fails at “a feat of spellcasting”. Meaning in short that spells can backfire and leave your caster weaker or suffering penalties for a time. Thankfully, perhaps with the assistance of alchemy or other spells, it’s going to be possible to remove curses that are put on your Sim.

Another tidbit about casting – you’ll be able to decide whether your spellcaster will use a wand or not, and toggle this preference through interaction menus.

If you haven’t seen it yet, you can learn a lot more information about the pack on my Realm of Magic Guide

I’ll also take the time to share this other nice shot of LeafBat, which was posted by SimGuruHouts.

We also got a look at the structure around the “collecting area” in the Magic Realm.

It would appear the pack’s new location has a structure that includes a small town segment and a large house where you are likely to meet the three Sages who can help you to become a spellcaster. There are a couple floating islands nearby. We think players can get there with gates or brooms, but aren’t sure exactly how this will work just yet.

Here, let’s show what I mean:

Maybe I’ve got something wrong here, but it looks like this is how it’s all laid out. We actually have not seen much of Glimmerbrook just yet. There’s a lot more of the Magic Realm, yet the town of Glimmerbrook is where Sims will actually be able to move in. You only visit the Realm of Magic, and can’t live there. Let’s hope the modding community comes to the rescue on that one.

SimGuruHouts & SimGuruNinja have shared a few nice visuals from The Sims 4 Realm of Magic. First, a familiar is seen flying. These are the little guys that are going to boost your Sim, though you can use a Cat or Dog as well. Next, a waterfall from the new world. Finally, Glimmerbrook in winter with Seasons installed. Both look very nice, but I look forward to a better view of the worlds not restricted by twitter’s low resolutions.

EA have announced the Maxis Monthly livestream will take place on September 3rd at 11AM PST. They said they are sharing the new build/buy and CAS items that will be coming to the base game in celebration of the game’s 5th anniversary. I’ll cover this stream and condense the information for you, so check back that afternoon for an update from me!