the The Sims 4 Graveyard of abandoned, unfinished and removed content
Hello! I made a list of most of the things in The Sims 4 that were introduced but then abandoned, unfinished features and removed features. If you have something else to add, don't hesitate to leave a comment! So, let's get started to this really extensive list!
- Stuff Packs Introduced in The Sims 2, Stuff Packs were made to give players new Build/Buy and CAS content without the need of an expansion and half the price of it. In The Sims 4, they were 1/4 of the price of an expansion, but also brought new gameplay experiences, like new interactive objects, new skills, new careers. The last Stuff Pack released was Paranormal, in January 2021, and EA never said if they are officially discontinued or if we'll get any other stuff pack.
- Gameplay Kits EA introduced Kits in 2021, as a new type of paid content, being half the price of a Stuff Pack and focused in a single aspect: gameplay, CAS or Build/Buy. Bust The Dust was the only gameplay kit ever released. Seems like these were abandoned due to budget limitations, as you can't make much of a gameplay for a so low-priced DLC. Also, BTD release was a mess, there were several bugs on it and there are some that still persist nowadays.
- Achievements The game has some achievements for the player, which are based in their current save. Achievements are unlocked when you reach specific goals (Career, Player Feats, Sim Feats, Relationships, Skills and Crafting, Wealth and Collecting). If you play on console, achievements are disabled if you use some cheats, like testingcheats and motherlode, because they count to their trophy/game achievements system. Most of them are from base game, and a few were sporadically added with packs, with the last achievement being from Seasons.
- Handedness Sims are randomly assigned as left-handed or right-handed, but only few interactions (eating, drinking, holding some objects) respect the Sim's dominant hand.
- Auto-save feature In The Sims 4 release, the game came with an auto-save feature, that often made a save state of your current save. The main drawback of it was that you couldn't customize it, like setting the period of each save. It also only saved in specific situations (creating a new game, when you made a manual save, exiting the game without saving and going to main menu without saving) and it didn't load on the Resume button, you had to manually choose it. They removed the feature in 2017, saying that "it didn't work as intended" but they didn't even tried to improve it
- Snowy Escape removed content During Snowy Escape early access, some Korean players complained to EA about the "Bow at Shrine" interaction and some clothes that had Japan's imperial flag, since these were offensive to them due to the period Korea was over Japan's domain. These things were removed, although the interaction is still in the game's files and can be enabled by using a mod. There was also a new roof trim available in the early access, but it was removed due to alleged "technical issues".
- In-game events The Sims 4 had many in-game limited time events, where you had to accomplish some goals to receive a reward, mostly special objects. There was even a hostess for these events, called Jasmine Holiday. There was also an event where a Sim version of Millie Bobby Brown was in this role.
- Sims Sessions (as an in-game event) They kinda resurrected in-game events with Sims Sessions in 2021, where Sims of real-life artists made a presentation in-game in special venues, with some objects and clothing made for this event. It only happened once, and now this name is used for a YouTube series where artists show the making of their songs in Simlish.
- Lifestyles These were introduced with Snowy Escape. Sims can gain lifestyles after doing some specific interactions along their routine. When a lifestyle is unlocked, these might have skill boosts, moodlet boosts, career performance boosts or even unlock special interactions related to the activities on the lifestyle. Your Sim is only allowed to have 3 lifestyles simultaneously and some of them are incompatible. No new lifestyles were introduced after that, although Growing Together's Social Compatibility is also affected by the lifestyles your Sims might have.
- Pack refreshes After doing some surveys about introducing new features to already released content, EA introduced pack refreshes in 2021. The only pack that had it was Spa Day, with new interactions, new CAS content, new aspirations and a new trait. When people asked producers about new refreshes, the gurus refused to say anything about them.
- Curved walls Introduced in the patch prior to High School Years, curved walls were a highly requested feature for builders, but poorly executed. Only a few specific windows and doors are compatible with curved walls, there's a bug with placing curved walls over other surfaces which causes the distortion of the surface under the wall, the object placement inside curved rooms is broken and the camera bounces if you do a curved room above the ground level. Additionally, no curved windows and doors were released besides the ones in High School Years.
- The Sims 4 Gallery official app for mobile phones in this app, you could see and favorite created content, send them to download in your game and follow your favorite creators. The app was discontinued and removed from the app stores in 2017.
- Scenarios (likely) Added as a way to give more challenge to the game, scenarios make the player accomplish some goals, in change of aspiration points, traits or unlockable assets. Some scenarios have a time limit to be finished, or you'll fail on them. Most scenarios are permanent, but there were some that were available to start for some real-life time and then vanished. EA even made a Main Menu overhaul to give more space to scenarios and even overhauled some of them, adding/adjusting difficulty levels and allowed some of them to be played with already played households. No new scenarios were introduced in 2023.
- SDX (Sims Delivery Express) [likely] These were introduced as a way to add small contents to game without needing to do a full update for it, like new objects, new foods, new CAS content and small bug fixes. They were stored in the user's game folder. All these contents would later be introduced definitely in the game files with the subsequent game patches. No new SDXs were introduced in 2023, although the April 18th patch had content that were internally labeled as SDX contents.
- Naked interactions for teens With Get Together, it was introduced the "Get Naked" interaction, alongside with skinny-dipping. Teens were enabled to do these interactions, but after a year or so EA quietly removed it from the game.
- My Wedding Stories unfinished content We all know that My Wedding Stories' release was a hot mess. Several bugs, delayed release, issues with LGBT+ content in Russia... This pack development was so rushed that some features were left unfinished. You can ask for your valentine's parents for their blessing for marriage, but the game gives no moodlets related to them. A modder found that Maxis made the icons for the moodlets, but not the moodlets themselves. There is also a cross-pack feature with Cats and Dogs, where you can pick your dog as a flower pal, but it's only available using cheats or a mod to permanently unlock it.
- Whims vs. Wants EA replaced whims with wants, and also introduced the fears system. The main issue is that cross-pack whims were not converted to wants, and the fears system seems to be very broken, being assigned to your Sim randomly and even repeating after solving it.
- PlantSims These were released in The Sims 4 as part of one of those in-game limited time events, with some special powers related to gardening, Water motive instead of Bladder and their Hunger need can be fulfilled by sunlight exposure. They were also reused in a game scenario called Plant-A-Sim. Although they exist in game, they are not treated as proper occults, being labeled by the game as "temporary states", since their existence is basically a moodlet. Occult players begged EA to turn them into proper occults, but nothng was made.
Things Maxis said that would take time, but none/few updates were given:
- Townie overhaul Maxis said that they would overhaul all the townies from the game, from Base Game to Cottage Living, giving them appearances with fidelity to their ethnics and proper lore around them. The only household which received a overhaul were The Goths, and no other was released after that.
- Pronouns After many months speaking about them, the custom pronoun feature was introduced only in English, with no expected release for more languages.