So they said they fixed the overabundance of wild plants, and yet they persist.
They said they fixed plants not needing to be watered, and yet none of my plants have had to be watered since the patch and before it.
And switching my calendar from 7 days to 14 days per season caused my current weather and predicted weather icons to turn into llamas, and my temperature icon is blank. Persists regardless of exiting the game or deleting cache files.

Really cool stuff. Amazing as always, Maxis.

I also noticed my plants didn't need to be watered, but then it rained every day so ...

I mean there's accidentally causing bugs while fixing things, that's bound to happen sometimes...but when you claim to fix things and you don't even fix those things? That's just plain failure I'm afraid.

I see the ignoring claim beds as been reported and long with everything else, and I've never seen this list so big before.

Bug List

Some are new reports, and some are even a few years old.

It's good more people now are getting involved, but isn't good there is many, so there is no doubt more bugs are always introduced than fixed.

Today, a i feel I have so little control over my sims than I did with it 3 years ago, I might as well leave them on full autonomy, and sit back and just watch the game like a movie, than the frustration off trying to command them, and going by the 50/50 method, will he do or won't he do it.

I think Seasons a good pack, but attached to a poor game engine, which prevents me from enjoying it to the fullest.

I'm not sure if this tweet might be of interest to you (or anyone else), but it seems like a fellow simmer named Wee Albet has had enough.... https://twitter.com/Weealbet/status/1012022520302665728

Umm....who is he?

Not exactly sure myself, lol... I've seen his name around over the years. I also have no idea if this kind of complaint will even hold water and get anything done, but at least he's willing to give it a try....
The bug issue is getting ridiculous now, though, and is leaving some people's games unplayable - mine included, and that's even without mods...

Where on Earth do these bugs keep coming from? I get that games will always have bugs since there are so many moving parts, but it makes no sense to me that they will go in and fix something and create an entirely different problem completely unrelated to something else.

“We fixes the bug of babies being set on fire when you get your laundry, but now whenever you drink water, it starts to snow. Sorry. We’ll fix that within the year.”

I feel like they break code on purpose sometimes just to give themselves more work.

I agree there it something nice about seeing so many people involved on all different platforms to fix the game. Also as stupid as it probably sounds it's also nice seeing a list of all the things that needs to be fixed, like the community is alive? idk

I want to give a small shout out to SimGuruNick tho. Once I messaged him asking some general questions about patches and some bugs and he replied and was really nice about it. I very rarely follow the gurus and what they do so after hearing so much negative I was really surprised.

Lodging an official complaint through the correct channel is all well and good, and I fully understand the need to do it, but that kind of thing needs the numbers to give it impact. Needs to be opened up for a petition, a class action kind of thing, rather than one man's quest. Otherwise that's all it will be, one man's complaint, and no official channels, bodies or organizations will be compelled to investigate or take action based on that.

And EA Maxis always have the "unique" card to fall back on. To make a suitable complaint, you have to provide suitable examples, comparisons, where a rival product is being handled better in its production and QA. To what do you compare the Sims franchise to? Where are the contemporary versions that are handled so much better, that prove EA Maxis are failing in their duty? Right now, complaining about the broken mechanics and longstanding issues with TS4, or the abundance of new ones with each patch, and comparing it with other video games to validate the failings of EA Maxis, is like comparing the broken steering wheel of a car to the flight patterns of a swan as an example of how the car fails. There are no true comparisons to out EA Maxis' failings, and EA Maxis know this.

Hell, maybe this is the best condition we could ever hope for a people simulator to be. Hence why no others in the industry would dare or bother to enter the market. Because every iteration has had similar ups and downs - mainly downs the longer it goes on - with the method to make and regularly maintain this game. There was just more joy for it, from the developer's point of view, in those early years, which made it a better product. But their joy for it is not the same, so that's where we are where we are today. I also think the digital downloading and, more importantly patching, has had a negative impact. The idea that patching the game, fixing errors quickly in a digital download that can be done in a single afternoon, supposed to be a revolution in keeping the game and the customers in good shape super fast, has proven quite the opposite. More languishing errors and broken code now than at any other time in history. When they had to burn it to a disc and you would not get that patch update for another six months till the next disc was released, they were pretty much on the ball with QA and testing. Now they can knock together a hotfix in a day and have it in everyone's game by tomorrow via the internet, it's a shit storm of utter terrible quality and a mountain of errors we are not getting the fixes for at all.

And the strongest mark against EA Maxis' quality control, QA testing and that side of things, which is valid. The nigh-on twenty years experience they have at this type of product. Experience alone dictates they should be far better at it than this. Far, far better.

The problem with that is...contracts don't actually work that way? I mean let me give you an example: A bus has right of way under law when leaving a bus stop however if a bus leaves a bus stop and rams a car out of the lane and into on coming traffic. The Bus driver is still responsible for at best totalling a car and at worst killing the driver and passengers. In the same way just because you put something in a contract it doesn't automatically make that thing suddenly legal or viable. The nature of the law is bureacratic and the nature of bureacracey is that you can't munchkin. Like at all. I'm also fairly certain that online contracts aren't actually considered viable since there's no way to negotiate terms or prove that the person actually ticked the agree icon. A cat could have run across thr keyboard for all anyone knows. Without witnesses or face to face transactions ensuring otherwise is impossible. There's also the fact that the only reason games are considered a "service" is in itself more an example of a capitalist exploit that really needs to be overturned by the authorities than a viable business model. Like most computer technology really. Looking at you Microsoft

Wee Albet is a member here and an MTS creator, also a contributor to SimsVIP and is/was a youtuber. But, hey, maybe he'll pop in here soon and tell you everything in person.

Surely it would be possible to get the masses in a rage, even if they aren't simmers? Like the Star Wars loot box controversy. Everyone joined in on that because it was EA. This is EA, why doesn't the same happen?

Bring out the argument that it rips off a lot of kids and we should be good to go...

Yeah, people will rally against lootboxes because lootboxes are a true travesty that could spread like a wildfire (yes, even to The Sims, most certainly) and ruin gaming altogether if someone doesn't put a stop to it.

Because of the community.

Star Wars is a franchise expanding outside of the scope of some game, and the game had great hype it couldn't live up to not due to poor game design, but due to greed. It was extra annoying because it was so-close-and-yet-so-far, and if they could JUUUUST get the lootboxes axed, then the game would be satisfying enough. (still had problems I heard, but wouldn't be awful)

The Sims is a community that has only ever been a video game, and what's more, it's community - stupidly frequently - is played by people that only play the Sims and nothing else, or at best they're willing to try games like Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley since they have a similar genre to them. That means a couple things for the Sims community:

1) Much of the community lacks perspective. If you were to tell them that, for example, snow lacking depth and other steps backward are inexcuseable in a time when companies like Nintendo released games as massive as Breath of the Wild, they'd simply have no idea what you're talking about. They would lack perspective on your example. If you tried to continue and say "well see, BotW managed to combine some of the good combat elements of Dark Souls while having a world many times bigger than Skyrim's," again you might as well be speaking moonspeak to them because they have no idea what the scope of any of that stuff is.

If EA tries to swindle the Star Wars fans with some pay-to-win mechanic, the Star Wars fans are more well-rounded on the gaming front and know, for example, that there's a steam summer sale where they can get full games for as cheap as $5, and of course a Sims 4 expansion pack cannot compete with that in terms of content count. This is never considered though, so you have people shelling out $40 without batting an eye or even questioning if the price tag for the content received might be disproportional compared to the rest of the market.

2) This ties into #1, but I'm sure some will respond "I don't care about those other games for $5, I only care about the Sims. Why shouldn't I pay for it then?" They have a point and they don't. They have a point in the sense that Sims doesn't really have that many competitors in it's genre, since even similar games like My Time At Portia, Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing are mechanically different, focusing more on letting you build up a life for your character instead of, for example, trying to create a town from scratch. However, this also glosses over the fact that if I do want to build a town from scratch, Sims 2 and Sims 3 are better suited for that job since they offer more customization options. Why is it that we're paying more for less? Why are we sending the message of "Yes EA, I love it when you remove features you used to provide. Please keep doing that and please keep killing the franchise slowly." It's a good question, but it's one that gets glossed over when unfortunately EA holds a monopoly and there are a good sum of people who don't care to try and branch out to other hobbies or game types, so they keep coming back to the Sims to get their fix regardless of the circumstances.

3) Again, this ties into #2, and it's a point I've repeated many times, but cannot repeat enough: There is psychological evidence that people get personally invested in brands and psychologically process brand failures similar to personal failures. Video here covering it, and I know when I was studying I could access the link to the study found here via my university, if anyone cares to read it themselves.

Take a bunch of people emotionally invested in the success of their beloved brand, give EA a monopoly, toss in a lackluster product and other examples of OTHER EA franchises disappearing off the face of the Earth after underperforming, and suddenly you have this fear that the Sims series could die. That itself probably has people thinking their backs are to the wall with the franchise (ieven when they're not) and the result is you get some very overzealous fans defending this franchise to the grave and back regardless of what it does, all because it's an important franchise for them and they're so invested in it they're probably reacting as if they themselves were in danger of dying off or something. They argue tooth and nail because they feel they have no other choice but to defend the franchise at all times; it's a dangerous mix of both being subconsciously too emotionally invested in the product combined with a somewhat rational fear that the franchise could die if it underperforms. (rational because we've seen evidence this is plausible, irrational because it doesn't ever stop to ask "how much should we allow ourselves to lose before it stops being worth it to fight for it's life?")

I've said it before and mean it half-jokingly, but I would seriously love to hear a legitimate psychological analysis on if select members of the Sims community qualify as having Stockholm Syndrome. The legitimate condition would of course be a no, (lots of specifications about being a hostage whereas here they're willing consumers) but some similarities that parallel the "spirit" of Stockholm Syndrome? That can absolutely be discussed.


Result is that if some big issue within the Sims community arises that is drama-worthy:

1) It has poor connections to the mainstream gamer media outlets and will struggle to pick up steam. Star Wars picked up because of movie fans and even non-gamers getting access to how greedy EA was and throwing in their support for the fans.
2) Half the players of the Sims will be discouraging that it's a big deal and calling critics entitled and spoiled to try and shout any backlash down. Hard to organize when half your team is against you.
3) People buy it anyways, because they have nowhere else to turn.

Star Wars had the right connections to the right outlets and it's big enough that even if this Star Wars product sucks, they can get their fix elsewhere. That's two of three categories in their favor, and I'd argue the third wasn't as bad for them as it was for the Sims either. Sims has some seriously die-hard fans, whereas I'd argue die-hard Star Wars fans have seen enough that they've at least had to internally come to terms with some Star Wars products being terrible, even if they don't like to openly admit it.

Hate to say it, but I honestly don't see a way for the Sims franchise/community to improve from this position at all. I'm not even talking about individual game or pack quality, since those could randomly spike or drop on their own, but I'm talking about the weird dependency fans have on EA even when EA is terrible. It's like a battered housewife that knows her husband is terrible and could be better, but keeps coming back, dreaming that things will one day magically go back to the way they were. Even if tomorrow the Sims 4 team suddenly got way more motivated and had four times the funding of before and started knocking packs out of the park, that wouldn't change that the right pieces are in place to allow this dependency on EA to happen all over again. It doesn't seem like Sims communities are gonna establish better connections with other gaming communities, so their perspective on pricing and ability to pick up steam as a drama story in media outlets remains limited, and we know damned well EA isn't parting with the Sims license.

Well, most, if not all, North American houses have some kind of underside to the roofing which is most often times white or off white... Personally, I don't like the look of shingles on the underside of the roof, and think the white looks more finished. It certainly doesn't look 'right' though.
They could have given it some form of texture to start with, but maybe it looked blurry or something, as many TS4 textures do.


EDIT:

AH! I just read the Wee Albet complaint - I was wondering why my computer's cooling has been all over the place these last couple days! I can't believe it's due to TS4. I am such a dolt, I didn't even consider it since ...I could play just about everything on high/ultra with little consequence.

Never said you were defending EA. But you are defending complete and total bullshit if you think for a second anything EA puts in the TOS would stand up in court. Espeacially when you consider that the Sims is marketed at a general audience "T for teen my ass" and for anyone purchasing a "physical" copy of the game the TOS crops up after EA ALREADY has your money. That alone is a huge redflag.

I don't think the uk law would cover him as it stands at the moment. Could try crowdfunding?!

This is how uk law stands on computer and digital content as "Which" states from 2015.
https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-ri...-faulty-product

Getting an unsuprising issue, not being able to take my hard earn vacation days from work, I would call then I get a notification message that is granuteered, but by the time work approaches, surprise surprise i'm purposely missing work and my boss keeps calling.

I have no idea how something like this could break, because this shouldn't had anything to do with Seasons

There's the option in the calendar to mark holidays as free from school/work days
maybe the managed to break it trough that
(can't check on my game cause none of my sims is working really..so no vacation days either)

Start taking your complaints to the Head Honcho. Vice President and GM of Maxis He's now a SimGuru on Twitter. I wish you luck

Don't know why you are putting the blame on the Sims community all of a sudden and treating them like they are dumb. It gets messy getting unfocused switching back and forth on who you want to do the blame game on. Interesting reading earlier in this thread seeing now that some who used to give me the most flack about the Sims 4 having bugs and other issues do mention the game having many issues now. But honestly I can tell you I've come across enough Simmers to know that the Sims isn't the only game Simmers have played in their lifetime or continue to play. I'm a huge Nintendo fan myself and grew up playing those games way back in the NES days. Snow depth isn't a game killer for everyone. I will stand by my decision that I'd take gameplay over visual anyday for any game. Sure Breath of the Wild has amazing visuals to it, but that isn't what sells it, it is the gameplay that is equally amazing. Yes I play Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley, but I also play Guild Wars 2, League of Legends, Human Fall Flat, Planet Coaster, Farm Together, Bastion, and Overwatch just to name a few on PC. True I'm not too much of a FPS player and don't care for Fornite.

Anyway on topic, I have no problem reporting bugs and not going to treat EA games any different than any other company. As far as the QA Gurus, I've had very good response with them with reporting bugs. Seems like Twitter and forums and the EA site probably best places to go to report them, but even when I was having Gallery issues like other Simmers were they took the time to gather information regarding it. I guess when it comes to reporting bugs, don't procrastinate like I've seen done in the past. The sooner things are reported the better because honestly I don't want to see a repeat of the Sims 3 with a ton of bugs left because they weren't fixed in time when development ended. One of the first bugs I came across was only reported by 9 people at the time which was the cupcake machine crashing the game because of having different wall heights. Simmers that had the shortest walls with the cupcake machine didn't experience it, but I was one of the few lucky ones that had to change the wall heights. I kind of like having an extensive game background because bugs do like me, so I don't mind reporting them. I've even been stuck in between a wall and a log with a MMO before. Words do only get you so far in life, but change does occur when some sort of action is applied. I don't think that lawsuit will hold up either legally. But there are ways to stand up for the Sims and apply some action for change. I've even been apart of some of those changes. I do think it is a good idea like others have said to talk to upper management for you. When it comes to bugs that other Simmers need fixing, best to contact SimGuruNick, SimGuruArvin, and SimQARobo about it. I'm glad the modding community made some of the cheats still available for Simmers.

Further to my earlier post Vice President & GM of EA Maxis. Joe Nickolls. I hope this means EA/Maxis are going to give the game more support. It must mean a boost to the programmers down the chain that he agreed to become a SimGuru. Friendly welcomes would do us more good than knocking our game, just a few helpful suggestions supporting his staff and getting more of them would be more helpful. I, myself, always find I turn off when one gets long diatribes.

https://twitter.com/SimGuruGMJoe

There's no blame in it, it merely is what it is.
There's no need to take anything I said as a reflection of ALL SIMMERS EVER IN THE HISTORY OF FOREVER either, as of course there's exceptions. Broad stroke statements like that should always be approached with a grain of salt. I'm sure there's thousands-if-not-millions of exceptions to that statement I made, but the thing is...well, as others have said before, we're nothing compared to the faceless consumers that seem to just follow the game on twitter or other social media and quietly buy the game without saying much. I can only speak from my experience that the most die-hard fans I've encountered are often times ones that keep to the Sims, and I do think that pattern of solely Sims fans meeting a market monopoly has a lot to do with how Sims drama just doesn't seem to light up and fizzles out regardless of how low the bar gets on select issues. I mean taking snow depth as a mere example, I'm sure if you asked Sims fans during the reign of Sims 3 if they'd pay for a Seasons sequel with no snow depth or a Pets sequel with no horses and no controllable pets, their reactions would be less than impressed....yet here we are.

Um, it'd be really great if we could keep this on topic of the current patch. I'm sure there is another thread around here y'all can go complain in about EA, SimGuru's, ....the world.