Hold your horses: The Sims 4 brings highly requested feature to base game—and it’s free

This feature is truly a game changer.

Two sims creating a puzzle in a sunroom with a painted ceiling.
Screenshot via Dot Esports

Players are saddling up for the launch of The Sims 4’s Horse Ranch expansion pack on July 20, but the base game update that launched today might be even more exciting than the arrival of horses. Since the game first launched on Sept. 2, 2014, players have regularly requested one key gameplay feature be changed, and after eight years, EA finally answered players’ wishes with an update that launched on July 18, 2023.

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Before this update, all ceilings in any building would be painted plain white and players had no way to change them. Now, The Sims 4 players can finally freely change the color and pattern of any ceiling to any of the available floorings in the Build catalog.

A Sims standing in front of a fridge in a kitchen with a wooden painted ceiling.
Players can use any flooring to paint the ceiling in any color or pattern they desire. Screenshot via Dot Esports

Related: What we want to see from The Sims 5

If you’ve ever tried to build anything in The Sims 4 that didn’t fit with the plain ceiling color, it likely impeded your building process. But luckily, this is now a problem of the past as all players have access to this free update ahead of The Sims 4 Horse Ranch launch.

The addition of horses in the Horse Ranch expansion pack is certainly exciting, but this new free base game feature is much more versatile since it will apply to any build players create while horses likely won’t be part of every Sims household players create. Finally being able to change the color of the ceiling is truly a game changer for The Sims 4 overall and will drastically alter how all Sims builds look moving forward.

While the new painted ceiling feature is the most exciting feature to come in the July 18 base game update, it also featured fairly lengthy patch notes that included a variety of other new features players may also enjoy.

When in Build Mode, players can now use the Free Camera mode that was previously only useable in Live Mode. This is a great tool for viewing your newly painted ceilings or for simply getting a better look at your creation overall.

Sims eat at a dinner table.
Players can see the new base game hairs on three of these Sims. Image via EA

The devs added three new base game hairs to implement better representation of Indigenous People in America plus a new dish players can cook up at the grill called Three Sisters Chili, a Native American dish. They also released new eye presets and brows focused on adding representation for East Asian Sims.

To match with many assets included in The Sims 4 Horse Ranch expansion pack, EA added tons of new swatches on base game assets that all players now have access to regardless of whether they obtain the new pack or not. This includes new swatches for many wallpapers, wooden floors, brick floors, fences, and doors.

Outside of these additions, the July 18 update also implemented a ton of bug fixes across many of The Sims 4’s packs.

Players can begin horsin’ around with the Horse Ranch expansion pack when it launches on July 20, but the free base game update is already available for players to delve into so you can start painting the ceilings of every build you’ve ever made now.

Author
Image of Kacee Fay
Kacee Fay
Staff Writer
Staff Writer at Dot Esports covering new releases and a wide array of topics including Minecraft, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Phasmophobia, general gaming, streaming, and more. She has been avidly writing and gaming her whole life and now spends her time combining the two. Kacee graduated from San Diego State University in 2021 with a Bachelor’s Degree in English and a Certificate in Creative Editing and Publishing. She then joined Dot Esports as a Freelance Writer in 2022 before transitioning to a Staff Writer in 2023. In her spare time, she enjoys buying more books than she can read, gaming alone or with friends, drinking too much tea, attending concerts, fangirling over movies and television, listening to music, and spending time with her family, friends, and pets, who are the most important parts of her world.