Sims 4 Cottage Living: What we Know so Far

The trailer for the latest, eye-popping, highly anticipated Sims 4 expansion pack released today, June 10th at 11AM EST.  

For months, players have pleaded for an expansion that would allow their Sims to enjoy the quaint lifestyle afforded by the quiet countryside. Their time has come, it seems, through the newest Sims 4 expansion pack: Cottage Living. 

The expansion pack, dropping July 22nd, boasts an enormous amount of new gameplay systems, fresh activities for child Sims, novel build tools, and a new slew of assets for Sims to live it up the simple way. 

What to Expect in Build/Buy

Henford-and-Bagley, the new world folded into the Sims 4: Cottage Living expansion pack, is an English countryside work of stunning art.  It comes with three neighborhoods, each boasting four lots each, including one 64x64 lot.  Simmers will be able to enjoy new roofing patterns and textures such as thatched hay, mossy green, and aged wood.  Perhaps most surprisingly, it appears that players will finally be able to create their own ponds and fishable lakes using a new lake terrain tool. There are of course, many fresh assets at the builder's disposal such as: 

• Chicken Coops which hold 8 chickens each
• Newly styled dormers
• New foliage and flowers
• Cow stalls
• Llama stalls
• New stone and wood fencing
• Garden stalls
• Embellished kitchen cabinets and counters
• Picnic baskets (which Sims can pack and bring along with them to scenic countryside areas. A single interaction will unpack the picnic basket. Sims can scoop the basket into their inventories and then use the picnic interaction at any table, at any time, and in any world. )
• Woodland hollowed logs that serve as happy homes for hopping bunnies
• Country clutter: Jars of jam, casserole dishes, hanging plants, glass milk jugs, and more!

The new pack will feature newly swimmable areas!

Head into the town square to bargain and gossip at the garden stalls!

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Kids will be able to cook alongside their parents in their homestyle country kitchens!

Gameplay: What to Expect

What's in it For Kids?
Speaking of children, there are a lot of new activities for them to enjoy in Cottage Living. The trailer shows live footage of children

• handling baby chicks
• embroidering
• cooking and baking alongside their parents
• Befriending bunnies and llamas
• Gardening/Farming

Meanwhile, adult Sims of course have a barrage of new farmland chores to occupy their simple countryside lives.  

Oversized Gardening
New oversized gardening plots allow Sims to grow large crops like pumpkins, watermelons, aubergines, mushrooms, and lettuce. Sims can harvest these foods for healthy meals (developers added new recipes like beef wellington, milk bread, and Yorkshire pudding to the growing Sims repertoire) or haul them into the Finchwick Fair to compete in the local vegetable growing contest! Of course, if vegetables aren't really a Sim's thing, they can also cajole their chickens into the local chicken contest, or rustle up a homemade pie for the county pie competition.

Head to the weekly Finchwick Fair to take part in vegetable-growing, pie-making, chicken-raising competitions!

Game changing Lot Challenges​
Brand new "lot challenges" are a new system in the game which seem to behave like lot traits but with a twist. When the "Simple Living Lot" challenge is active, for example, Sims will find cooking far cheaper but the same Sims must only use the fresh ingredients they have at their immediate disposal. Sims will be able to milk cows for milk, raise chickens for eggs, and forage in the nearby woodlands for berries and mushrooms. Sims will need to procure any missing items via grocery delivery.  They can also buy beef and chicken at the local shop in town. Sims will even be able to "can" goods within the cooking skill. 

When the "Wild Fox" challenge is active, Simmers will have to contend with sneaky, wily foxes who may creep into unsuspecting farms to gobble up hen eggs or run off with bunny snacks! 

Simmers can of course toggle these challenges on and off at their leisure, living their country lifestyle as comfortably as they see fit. 

Village Errands
While there are no new careers involved with this pack, Sims can take part in a new game system called "village errands." It takes a village to, well, run a village, and so the local townsfolk will need much of your Sim's aid when it comes to running their busy stalls and shops.

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Cows, Chickens, and Llamas! Oh My!
Farm life wouldn't be quite as quaint and idyllic without the adorable company of farmland animals.  Cottage Living comes packed with many of the animals for which Sims 4 players have begged developers for years. Gamers can expect: 

• Cows
• Llamas
• Foxes
• Woodland birds
• Bunnies
• Chickens

These cuddly critters help their Sim companions in a variety of ways.  Sims can shear their llamas for wool, raise chickens for eggs, milk cows for a number of flavored milk varieties, and name and befriend rabbits and birds who will fetch valuables through a new gifting system.  Players who take a shining to these cute companions can move their natural homes onto any home lot, but these little hollowed out tree trunks will first exist only in the wild.   With the help of the new Animal Enthusiast Trait, Sims will happily befriend (or gravely irritate) cute critters.  Relationships with each animal color their responses, their moods, and even the flavor and quality of goods they offer.  For example, feeding a cow chocoberries will give the hopeful farmer chocolate milk under the right circumstances. 

None of these animals will take up precious Sim space in a household. Instead, the animals will prove largely self-sufficient, ready to form that special bond with their Sim of choice.  Playable Sims can even make cute little sweaters for their rabbits and special critters!

The animals, not unlike Sims, will age and die, but players can keep them alive forever if they choose to do so. 

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Knitting costs are completely negated if a Sim has llama wool in their inventory. 

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Sly, creeping foxes can and will sneak into Sim farms to gobble up bunnies and snatch up hen eggs. 

Chickens are a Hoot
The chickens in Cottage Living are robust. 
Players will be able to breed chickens as long as a hen and rooster share the same coop. Simmers can dress, name, and gather eggs from their chicken companions. Beware the fox, however! These sly creatures will sneak into hen coops to steal eggs. 

Create-a-Sim
The clothing assets this pack offers appear to range from farmland chic to quaint and country.  Loosely tied hairs, tightly coiled up-dos, conservative quarter-sleeved, floral-patterned dress, hardy waistcoats and vests are the norm for this pack, which is sure to please come July 22nd. 

​Eggplant competition! Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Yeah, I want that textured hair too.