Sims 4 Problem and Annoyance Thread--Take 2!

[MrsCrumplebottom]

So I got bored and decided to go for the 2-day free trial for TS4.  If I'm going to bash (or praise) something, I'd like to be able to say, hey, I tried it.  So I wouldn't mind rattling off some annoyances.

The sims were a bit cartoony but eh, I could get used to that.  But when it came to detail, like with furniture and everything...TS2 and TS3 have better detail.  I got a notice that my video card might not be able to handle it, but it handled it just fine (my computer is 6 years old, running Windows 7, 3 GB, and it handles TS2 and all EPs just fine, as well as TS3). 

Building a house was fun.    Why couldn't they just make it so you could click-and-drag for roofs?  Then I did shift+click to do all the outside walls of a house at once...and the inside walls got it too, and no I didn't have any missing wall segments.    And don't get me started on the blasted camera!

I didn't mind the sims sitting in front of the TV while eating.  Thing is the little buggers don't stay in one place for long--you have to watch them or they're off doing who-knows-what.

Granted, the UI takes some getting used to after having played TS2 since 2009, then TS3 since 2013.

I guess it's kinda fun if you're bored out of your mind, and you don't mind plunking down $60 for Sims 1.5.  If I do get it at all--and that is a BIG "if"--I'll wait until it comes down in price.  $10 and I might consider it.

I didn't care much for the "no toddlers" deal, and that teens look just like YA/adults.  (They pare it down, then claim your video card might not be able to handle it?    )

That's just my list, and that's after two days.  I'm sure that if I had it longer I could come up with more. 

[tinylittleparty]

Autonomy is incredibly stupid. Especially for pregnant sims. They simply won't take care of their needs until they're in the red, and with pregnant sims, they end up with several in the red at once unless you manually direct them to take care of themselves before then. Bathroom preference is also stupid. There are two bathrooms in the house, one on the first floor, one on the second floor. Sims whose bedroom is on the first floor will still autonomously go to the second floor's bathroom.

Queue-dropping is an issue for me as well. My sims can't handle being asked to pee and to eat in any order. They'll take leftovers out of the fridge, eat one bite, then get up to use the toilet and stop using the toilet after just barely sitting down on it. This has been happening when "eat" and "use" are pretty much anywhere in the same queue. They forget everything else they were supposed to do too. There are other instances where queue-dropping occurs, but that's the most consistent.

Occasional dropping of only one particular action in the middle of the action for seemingly no reason. So far, I've only seen this happen with things like doing dishes or taking out trash. They'll pick up some dishes, stack more dishes, then just put the dishes down on the ground or wherever. Or they'll pick up the trash, walk halfway to the outdoor trashcan, dump the trash on the floor.

Notification frequency. I don't want to be told every single time a sim "gains a skill," or every single time they go to work or it's 1 hour until work/school. Especially stupid when there are multiple kids in a house and there's separate notifications. I don't want to EVER be told that sims who love the outdoors do indeed love the outdoors. I use my notifications section for things that will remind me what I was doing in the game if I don't play for a while. Those things are absolutely useless in every way. Just clutter.

So many phone calls. This might just be a problem with Get Together, I don't know for sure. Sims get calls from friends wanting to hang out ALL THE FRICKING TIME. For a while, I thought it was cool. Then it was just annoying. If I want to hang out with you, I'll let you know. And we're hanging out at my house, because fuck loading screens.

Party problems. When a sim is invited to a social event, and you say yes, you're instantly forced to load up wherever they're going. I'd like to be able to say yes, but retain control of everyone at my household instead. On top of that, sims at parties aren't allowed to leave, and the parties can go on REALLY long. There have been times where they've had to shit and sleep in the same bush because they weren't allowed to go home when they stopped having a good time.

Takes forever to go to school. Only had this issue with one kid so far, and he happens to love the outdoors, so it may be that. All his siblings went to school by walking a little out the door and fading. He chose to run ridiculously far away from home, and fade there. He was in the "go to school" action the whole time. He ended up getting to school at about noon, even though he left the house right on time. He did not do this every time he went to school, though. (I don't think it even happened more than once.)

Bathtub problem. So far only had this issue with the corner-style bathtub. Sim will get in the bathroom, and get right back out to "see what's happening." Once it happens for a sim, it never stops for that sim. They can still use other tubs fine. I've tried replacing the bathtub with a new one of the same kind and it doesn't fix it. ResetSim didn't work for me either.

I actually really like the way sims look in TS4, and I like the click-and-drag facial customization and body customization in CAS. I don't mind the lack of create-a-style. I never used it much in TS3 because it was one of those things where I was spoiled for choice, so I just used defaults. Build mode is enjoyable. Live mode just has lots of annoying issues like this.

(Multiple edits were made as I thought of more things.)

[MaximilianPS]

is there any MOD that MODify the idiotic behavior ?

[MrsCrumplebottom]

I'm sure people will come up with fixes, you have to give it time.  I'm sure there are people over 12 who wouldn't mind.

Me, I don't plan on buying it any time soon.  $60 for the base game?  As my dad would say to anyone buying it at that price, "You got took."

I noticed the massive queue-dropping too.  I expect it from an absent-minded TS3 sim.  But I was finding myself thinking, "Look, bud, you do what I tell you!"  I am someone who micro-manages her sims big-time, and when they defy orders, get up, and do something stupid...well, where's the cowplant when you need it? 

[RaeKira]

I've noticed my Sims need to pee constantly. Why? Your bladder bar is full, you should not be dropping everything to go sit on the toilet. It's always the farthest away toilet!

[Alpaca Allegiance]

So many phone calls.

Scan the tuning for "dramanode." Change all the days available to "FALSE".

Here is what I made (attached). It stops incoming calls and texts from NPCs (congratulations on baby, sucks your husband died, lets go get hammered, party at my house, etc). Only calls from work and such get through. This also blocks invites to special occasions, like Bear Night at the bar and whatnot. It's sloppy as hell. I just threw it together and never cleaned it up because it gets the job done. Not for public consumption.

I am still trying to find a way to safely fix the tuning so queues stop dropping (without manually editing hundreds of entries). One of the best features in Awesomeware was - what was it called - Sticky Queue or something? That prevented queues from ever being dropped. I wish I had more time to fumble with this.

... It's been so long since I posted, I had to make a new account because mine got scrubbed. Oh well.

[JennyJenny]

I looked through the original annoyances thread for this issue, and I don't think I saw it there, here goes:

When my sims are told to make food (at any time, in any circumstance) they go to the fridge, stand there for 5 sim-minutes, and then open the fridge. They put the food down on the counter, wait 5 sim minutes, and start preparing it. After the food is finished they put the plate on the counter, wait 5 sim-minutes and then pick it up. Then they wait some more, and walk somewhere to eat it (This is also irritating, but OMFG, it pales). It doesn't drop from their queue, it just takes them a long time to do it.

This makes it almost impossible to keep them on schedule, since with all the waiting around they take an additional 20 minutes to prepare and eat a meal.

I have googled it and a lot of people seem to have this issue, some claim deleting cache files fixes it, some claim emptying every single sim's inventory fixes it. Some claim it is caused by too low computer specs, or too much CC. I have asked a couple other players about it, all three of us  meet the recommended requirements (4gb RAM, modern video card, etc), A uses CC, B does not. I have very few items in inventories, B never empties them out. All three of us experience this issue.

All these supposed "fixes" and "causes" mixed with my own experience and the very small sampling I have taken make me think it is inherent in the game.

[J. M. Pescado]

Is this a stock behavior or have you attempted to mod the game? I've seen this before, with early attempts at clock-modding.

[daistarr]

Is this a stock behavior or have you attempted to mod the game? I've seen this before, with early attempts at clock-modding.

This is a thing with the game. It happens a lot of the time. Cooking is a big one for causing this action.

[snabul]

I always pause the game if this happens and every second is important. Then the game can load animations. When I unpause the game the Animation is loaded and no "Stopping" occurs.
I hope I was helpfull :-)

[Pyromaniac]

Seconding all of the annoyances reported by tinylittleparty.

Also:

- Bed ownership in this game is dreadful. Since the update, Good Friends can no longer sleep in the same double bed if at least one of them has claimed it, even if they're in the same household and both have claimed a side. Sims automatically claim a bed if they sleep in it.

- Parties last forever; dates end too quickly. With all the queue-dropping and route failures in this game, it takes me the entire length of a date just to get seated at the goddamn table.

- Time passes too quickly because sims take forever to do anything. Everyone in this game apparently suffers from catatonia: they'll wait 5-20 sim minutes (depending on game speed) before moving on to the next action. It seems to occur more often when there's a lot of auto-queuing involved (i.e. when task-relevant actions pop up in the queue without your intervention). This might explain why cooking and socializing are some of the worst offenders, since there are a lot of actions being shuffled.

- Also a minor annoyance, but there's no option in CAS to copy makeup from one category to the rest. There is ONE way, and ONE WAY ONLY, to have your Everyday makeup carry over to the other categories, but from what I've read on the forums, this occurs only under extremely stringent conditions. (It has to be a "fresh" sim from CAS, you can't press the Randomize button, you can't click anywhere on the Sim's body or bring up the Outfit tab, you have to enter and exit Detailed Edit mode and jump straight to the Makeup tab, etc...)

[Roobs]

All these supposed "fixes" and "causes" mixed with my own experience and the very small sampling I have taken make me think it is inherent in the game.

I'm certain that the time problem seems to be an issue with the engine itself, as sometimes the speed controls stop responding, or things keep moving even when the game is paused. The original game never had any issues; the problem only started happening after a patch from some time ago. IMO it's worse than TS3's shitty performance.

Parties last forever; dates end too quickly. With all the queue-dropping and route failures in this game, it takes me the entire length of a date just to get seated at the goddamn table.

Heh, that's weird. I have the exact opposite issue. Can't score a Gold party because time runs out way too quickly to complete the objectives.

[MaximilianPS]

At this moment the most irritating behavior is the book-obsession, every sims looks like to prefer read book instead look at tv, talk each other, even the child ignore toys and read book
JM please save us from books !!! 

[J. M. Pescado]

Seems normal to me. Wife and kid behave exactly like that, too.