Today, we will be counting down our list of “10 Annoying Issues in the Sims 4” that are not yet fixed and must be dealt with as soon as possible. Please keep in mind that these are not all my personal opinions, I have been asking questions and gathering feedback from the community for the last week and I picked one or two issues regarding each problematic categories which follow as CAS, Build-Buy, Babies, Aspirations, Careers, Occults, and Emotions! I have left the issues about the personality system out of this list because my previous article suggested a sort of fix to some of those problems.
Beware, this is a long read!
10) God Hates Your Outfit
Did Jeffree Star think of this game when he wrote this song back in the 2000s? I think not, but the title of the song almost directly refers to us simmers. Situational outfits, one of every simmers’ nightmares. Whatever algorithm the game is currently using for situational outfits is not working well. Thanks to mods like MCCC, players can stop their Sims from appearing in sausage costumes or anything less ridiculous, but there still is no official fix to this problem. They must either repair the system or scrap it as a whole. No one likes it anyway!
While we are on CAS related issues, let’s not forget about the horrendous amount of bugs that were reported and exposed on a certain list that the team has not promised to fix yet. Like some Discover University outfits not appearing for certain fashion choices, weird accessories appearing on towel outfit or some other DLC CAS items not working correctly, etc. We would love to hear more about this subject.
9) Glyph of the Chameleon… wait, what?
A glyph simply alters a character’s appearance and is a cosmetic feature of World of Warcraft. Glyph of the Chameleon makes a druid’s animal form to change colors each time they transform. But this is the Sims 4, not World of Warcraft, right? Yeah, indeed.
This is how we all started to wonder why the hair and eye color system is so persistent in changing randomly especially when it comes to Toddlers and Kids. Probably it is a coding issue which must be dealt with, like, now! Otherwise, the game should bring some other glyphs that would allow us to stick to one certain appearance. Oh no, wrong game, again!
Also should note that there is another huge complaint about spellcaster eyes not working properly and mermaid forms/features not linking properly to their human forms. Some CAS mechanics must be repaired.
8) Buy, Build, DEMOLISH!
After the release of the Sims 4, build-buy had been the number one controversial feature of the game for a long time due to lack of some essential tools. There have been numerous bugs that were thankfully fixed in time, desired tools were added and improved as well. But there are still some issues to be addressed here.
Have you noticed that you cannot change the wallpaper in an apartment building in San Myshuno? Well, once you change it, you cannot alter it anymore. This is just a mere example of how something so little can be so troublesome.
Another issue in buy-build mode is that diagonal fences do not work properly for some reason. Especially when you try to put a gate on a diagonal fence, it makes the game glitch and makes any piece of the fence the gate touches invisible. The floor terrain also gets cut sometimes when building on a diagonal. As you can see below, there is a glitch hole in the grass. And no, this isn’t related to any mods or CC or cheats.
Now just think about something bigger, way bigger… Every single Sims 4 builder I know is frustrated by the fact that they cannot adjust lighting color and intensity in build/buy mode. We do hope that the game team decides to spare some time on fixing this issue in upcoming patches. Fingers crossed!
7) Where is my baby? Is this thing even a baby?
A considerable percentage of the player base is not happy about the newborn babies technically being objects. I personally do not mind it since it was quite painful to keep up with their needs in past games, but this treatment also feels brutal. Have you ever lost your baby after moving out from one house to another? Worry not, the baby is probably in your family inventory. YES, since the newborn babies are technically categorized as objects, they are being put into family inventory while moving out. Maybe just when moving out, they could be put in their parents’ arms. Just maybe. Or another solution could be making them actual Sims without changing how they work mechanically. Anything that would show us, players, that the team actually cares about such loud player complaints.
6) Starstruck, darling! Not lightening-struck!
There has been a lot of complaints about how celebrities work, such complaints that made me not want to buy Get Famous expansion pack. No matter the scenario, Sims will always get astonished by a celebrity sim around them, interrupt everything they do. And famous Sims themselves constantly get “React in Disgust” interaction on their queue but they almost never actually do it, but it still interrupts whatever they are doing. It can be not a big issue for some people, but it is for gameplay oriented simmers. Imagine how many weddings or any other important events were ruined because of celebrities.
5) Wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff
For this one, I’d like to remind the game team that people assume time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it’s more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff. Have any of your vampire Sims got invited to an event by other vampires during the day when the sun is high and shining bright? And have you ever tried to call other vampires at night and they got angry at you because “it is the middle of the night”? Well, duh! I believe they should already have some basic knowledge about what is good for them and what is not as vampires. Like sunlight! It is just one of many little annoyances related to vampires that must be fixed along with the rest.
4) Cursed for an eternity!
You would expect fewer issues with the most recent content but you just wish. There are a lot of issues related to spellcasters that I do not even feel like allegorizing here. Eg. CAS issues are not limited to their eyes not working properly, they may get duplicate makeup in the catalog, born spellcasters may not get the occult face customization and they forget spells when they are saved in the library. There are also some gameplay issues that must be fixed like ex-occult Sims can’t complete spellcaster aspiration when they become one, newer generations of spellcasters face issues with XP gains and spellcaster UI because of their bloodline traits. This is the latest game pack, this is the Realm of Magic. Please, EA, please, just fix them.
3) Is this Artist’s Block?
People have been telling me that Freelancer Career is broken. Some daily tasks simply cannot be done without mods like UI cheats extension. I personally find it a bit amusing how unintentionally it reflects the painful aspects of being a freelancer in real life. Imagine how cool it would be if this was intended as a side-feature for branches like Digital Art, your sims getting artist’s block and such. As a hobbyist digital artist, I believe I can speak on behalf of the people like me, there certainly are times that we get stuck with our productivity. But this sure is not intended to function in such a way. Like, if a sim actually completes a task, the criteria must be fulfilled. This summarizes our point that problematic careers, especially freelancer career must be fixed.
2) I aspire to be…
There are a handful of bugs related to aspirations and we do hope the team finally decides to spray them in a future game patch. It would take longer than you would ever expect it to be if we listed down each problem but I will give you some examples. Since the title of this article suggests, maybe we should highlight some that are relatively more annoying than the others. Which bugs are more annoying than others when it comes to aspirations? Well, the ones that prevent players from completing them, obviously! “Not being able to complete aspiration as a spellcaster” or “master vampire survival days reset on travel & reload” or “reading certain books does not count for the knowledge aspiration”. I believe we all have an idea about how annoying these are.
…or not to be.
While I was doing my research, I noticed something that troubled me a lot. The majority of the people were unhappy about the lack of aspirations and how all Sims feel too similar after a while. I want to pause here and state that I kind of agree with the developers’ choices when it comes to aspirations. There is no point in adding more aspirations if there aren’t going to be any meaningful, unique, exclusive rewards for completing an aspiration. Maybe they should improve the rewards alongside the aspirations so every new opportunity will actually get us hyped for more gameplay.
1) Why so NOT serious?
Can you recall the first time you ever heard of the Sims 4? If you struggle, let me take you down to memory lane. In 2014, Rachel Franklin, the executive producer of the Sims 4 at the time being, gave the first initial gameplay presentation. The main focus of this presentation was the whole new “emotions system” and they were so proud of it. After they told us about emotions, they promised that there would be more factors on how a sim feels than our actions. I hate to tell you but the emotion system is not good at all. And this is disappointing. It is clear that our Sims need more mental abilities or stronger personalities to make sense in some scenarios. To make this one clear, I will quote one of our followers’ tweets about one of their experiences in-game and I will let you have your own opinion on this matter.
“I once had 3 Sims go out together. Two were a couple that was on a date. Suddenly the third sim who was a vampire had an emotional meltdown, became enraged and drank the girlfriend’s plasma. But despite a vampire biting my sim’s girlfriend, leaving her numb on the ground and ruining the entire date, my sim stood there smiling with that creepy joker grin on his face the entire time. He could have at least got upset.”
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Well, I am not surprised! I bet we all had been there and seen that! You must also check out these tweets about how emotions have too much influence on our Sims to such a point that they are controlled by their emotions and they are acting the same despite having different personalities because of it. This is a major issue of the game in general. And this is probably why we will keep asking for more, like more traits, more trait slots, more aspirations, horoscopes, favorites, turn-ons/offs, interests, all of that. In the long run, fixing the emotion system must help.
If you managed to read this far, thanks for staying with me! I hope I could voice some of your biggest problems with the game! Although it is nice that the dev-team acknowledges most of these issues, I believe that it would be more reassuring of them if they released a schedule for upcoming fixes.
Do you agree with our list? What would you like to add? Feel free to share your opinions with us down in the comments!
Be nice to yourselves!
You can find me on Tumblr, Twitter & Instagram if you have any suggestions or inquiries!
“Since the release of the Sims 4, build-buy has been the number one controversial feature of the game”?
What?
It’s one of the few aspects most people agreed that was a marked improvement over previous iterations.
Remember the lack of terrain tools, pools and remember how disappointed the community was. If you continue to read, you’ll see that we also acknowledge the improvements that were already applied.
Still disagree. Not *at all* the most controversial feature. And you also said *has been*, as if it continues to be all along. I can think of many other more controversial features (or lack thereof) toddlers, colour-wheel, open world, cars, etc..
Fair enough, corrected now, thanks for your feedback.
Thank you for taking it. I admire that!
Customizable ceiling tiles should have been number one. How the hell is it we’re still stuck with pure white ceilings when Jungle Adventure tombs had tile ceilings?
10) I would love to see a system where you can choose favorite styles and colors for particular sims, so when outfits are generated, it’s much less wonky. “prefers light colored tops” (or a specific color) with “jeans” for example without needing to stop there. 9) I’d also like to see colored hair (I guess it’s dyed?) such as pink or blue as GENETIC. I mean why not?? We have vampires, aliens, mermaids, and more…why not genetically pink haired people? 7) I’d also love to see stats for newborns. Someone made a mod that lets you see your pet’s needs and to control them…so why not see the stats of a baby? I don’t really mind them appearing in the inventory because sometimes it’s hard to find things if you’re not used to the layout of a new house. Then you’re hunting for a crying baby. 6) I believe in Sacrificial’s road to fame mod, there’s an attribute that cancels out your sim’s reaction to famous people…it’d be nice to have one for basegame too. I don’t know if the RtF’s attribute works for basegame celebrities or not. 5) I know there is a random generator for this, but yes…it’s annoying. I’ve had phone calls from ghosts, and even babies…which needless to say is bizarre. But during a challenge, I had a vampire child call their vampire father, and yeah…he was asleep. I was confused. Or how you can be chatting with them online (Chat feature on computer) but they’re asleep if you call that moment. 1) I definitely agree with the emotional stuff. I feel like if I didn’t have mods the game would be really dry. And just as aside not related to the 10 listed…goals. Sort of goes with the aspirations. This is a game. When I first got Get to Work and went to work with a doctor sim to test it out, I realized what had been lacking. It’s one thing to fulfill aspirations, but another to get through a day of work. And same with vampires…you have a game goal…you can aspire to rise in ranks of vampirism and game powers (fame is like this as well…but with vampires, you HAVE to feed and use your powers or you don’t survive…it’s not this way with fame…you just lose stars). With Parenthood I was hoping to see something like this for being a successful parent. Checklists of things needing to achieve status…and not lose your kids to CPS essentially. (there’s way more about that as well with their attributes…these are nearly pointless as well).
I sometimes wish you didn’t always have to ‘attempt introduction’ with famous people. Because for example my famous scientist is not going to be known by his neighbour the actress. He may be famous but not to her?? She should be able to just talk to him without knowing the whole fangirl act because it doesn’t make sense
One thing that ANNOYS me about celebrities is when they’re IN your family or a family member. Like my sims’ mom would freak when she and her husband come around because they are both famous. But at home, she’s acting normal? It makes so sense. And also the emotion issues. I don’t want a sim to not be able to do their job because they are sad about not getting promoted for 3 whole days?! How is she supposed to work and make money and try to get promoted the next time if she’s stuck on not being promoted “on time” according to her?!
Not being able to change apartment building communal areas or even apartment sizes etc – I remember how many different apartment variations I could make in Sims 3 and when Sims 4 came to with its “the hallway is technically terrain” I goddamn cried.
Since I installed the discover university expansion, my sims have been unable to finish reading any books even with speed reader trait and reading both children’s books and adult books!
Frustrating
If there is gonna be a “the sims 5”, I really wish the characters, homes, environment etc. to be hyper realistic and not like the previous versions. If you see other pc games, or games on other consoles, you will definitely notice the progress that has been done as the years pass by on the very details.
I have problem with columns, pool, plants, lights. What is happening? Before update everything was working perfectly. I have only base game.
I would also prefer if we could host events (eg, birthday parties, weddings) at public venues (eg, bars, lounges) but have the doors sealed off to the public so that only guests of the event can enter. Kind of like a ‘private’ parties so random townies don’t come in and crash it and eat all your food.
When I first bought the sims 4 and played it I wasnt happy with it. I had to get used to this one, took me a while but I really got into it again now I have all the expansion packs but the stuff ones. All of this stuff listed is head on. Specially the last one about the emotions. I’ve been playing sims since I was 11 and I’m now 34
Of all the Sims versions 4 has been the most disappointing. Smarter Sims they kept saying…yeah…no. So annoying to set up a great kids room (bed assigned) only to have the kids, teen or University student go into other people’s room to do homework or study. Drinking water constantly from the bathroom sink…then wash dishes in the bathroom sink instead of the perfectly good kitchen sink. This feeds into the emotion issues as well. Say hello and suddenly you have a red bar going on…but get in a fight with a Sim and 10 seconds later they are smiling and chatting. I miss Sims initiating things like flirting, playing games or juice pong.
You should be able to hover over baby’s with your mouse and see what their needs look like or what they actually what when they’re crying
“we will keep asking for more, like more traits, more trait slots, more aspirations, horoscopes, favorites, turn-ons/offs, interests, all of that” ABSOLUTELY I would love nothing more than horoscopes, favorite foods & colors. These small details make our sims unique individuals
Hello fellow simmers! Recently i have encountered a problem, and i was wondering if anyone knows how to fix it. When i open my game, everything is fine, and i can easily get into whatever save i want. But when i try to look at the sims family picture on the worldmap it doesn’t show up, instead it has been replaced by a big blue square. When i try to play with said family it doesn’t let me. Either it just doesn’t do anything (As in, i cant even close the game. It just stays on the loading screen for hours on end) or it goes to the ‘select a world’ screen, telling me that there is a problem, and that i have to restart the game to fix it. Despite restarting, Repairing, updating, and removing all mods, it has not worked. If anyone is having the same problem or knows how to fix it let me know.
I play the sims 4 on xbox one s and i love it but it keeps crashing when im trying leave my lot, manage worlds, and also when i save my game it makes me have to spend hours on the game. And cant play on big lots without it lagging or crashing again.
One of the things that annoys me is that since they added the resizing of the columns so that you can drag them to the correct height, they removed diagonal foundations (I don’t understand why – it makes placing them so hard now whereas previously it involved one click) and columns placed on diagonals can’t be rotated to sit straight – fine with the circular columns, but with square ones it means the one on the wall edge is straight with the wall, but the one on the free open side is rotated 45 degrees so the corner points out forwards. WHY? This wasn’t an issue before then, but has been since and there have been a few new packs and updates so you’d think they might have fixed that. But no, wonky columns with no ability to manually rotate them like it used to be possible to do is what we have now.
Its also annoying that you can drag the columns higher, but only in specific amounts which means that at their shortest they sit under the roof overhangs (with certain sized roofs – specifically small ones like for porches) without touching, but then if you raise them up just one bit, they stick up through the top of the roof! Meaning you have to pick between getting the angle of the roof you want, but columns that don’t look like they support it at all, or change the roof angle until you can get it to meet the column top, but have it look out of place with the rest of the roofing. Neither is ideal when previously they just lined up properly themselves (not including the bug just before the changing height was added where they defaulted to medium height no matter what).
With these issues with the diagonals its like all EA wants us to build is cubes with no interesting features whatsoever. I made an amazing modern house in a cantilever style and finished it just days before the update and I’m so glad I did because now it wouldn’t be possible due to how they screwed up diagonal placements of foundations and other items. Visiting it now feels like a relic of old times. LOL
11 pet bugs
Hello fellow simmers! Recently i have encountered a problem, and i was wondering if anyone knows how to fix it. When i open my game, everything is fine, and i can easily get into whatever save i want. But when i try to look at the sims family picture on the worldmap it doesn’t show up, instead it has been replaced by a big blue square. When i try to play with said family it doesn’t let me. Either it just doesn’t do anything (As in, i cant even close the game. It just stays on the loading screen for hours on end) or it goes to the ‘select a world’ screen, telling me that there is a problem, and that i have to restart the game to fix it. Despite restarting, Repairing, updating, and removing all mods, it has not worked. If anyone is having the same problem or knows how to fix it let me know.
“Since the release of the Sims 4, build-buy has been the number one controversial feature of the game”?
What?
It’s one of the few aspects most people agreed that was a marked improvement over previous iterations.
Remember the lack of terrain tools, pools and remember how disappointed the community was. If you continue to read, you’ll see that we also acknowledge the improvements that were already applied.
Still disagree. Not *at all* the most controversial feature. And you also said *has been*, as if it continues to be all along. I can think of many other more controversial features (or lack thereof) toddlers, colour-wheel, open world, cars, etc..
Fair enough, corrected now, thanks for your feedback.
Customizable ceiling tiles should have been number one. How the hell is it we’re still stuck with pure white ceilings when Jungle Adventure tombs had tile ceilings?
Thank you for taking it. I admire that!
I play the sims 4 on xbox one s and i love it but it keeps crashing when im trying leave my lot, manage worlds, and also when i save my game it makes me have to spend hours on the game. And cant play on big lots without it lagging or crashing again.
One of the things that annoys me is that since they added the resizing of the columns so that you can drag them to the correct height, they removed diagonal foundations (I don’t understand why – it makes placing them so hard now whereas previously it involved one click) and columns placed on diagonals can’t be rotated to sit straight – fine with the circular columns, but with square ones it means the one on the wall edge is straight with the wall, but the one on the free open side is rotated 45 degrees so the corner points out forwards. WHY? This wasn’t an issue before then, but has been since and there have been a few new packs and updates so you’d think they might have fixed that. But no, wonky columns with no ability to manually rotate them like it used to be possible to do is what we have now.
Its also annoying that you can drag the columns higher, but only in specific amounts which means that at their shortest they sit under the roof overhangs (with certain sized roofs – specifically small ones like for porches) without touching, but then if you raise them up just one bit, they stick up through the top of the roof! Meaning you have to pick between getting the angle of the roof you want, but columns that don’t look like they support it at all, or change the roof angle until you can get it to meet the column top, but have it look out of place with the rest of the roofing. Neither is ideal when previously they just lined up properly themselves (not including the bug just before the changing height was added where they defaulted to medium height no matter what).
With these issues with the diagonals its like all EA wants us to build is cubes with no interesting features whatsoever. I made an amazing modern house in a cantilever style and finished it just days before the update and I’m so glad I did because now it wouldn’t be possible due to how they screwed up diagonal placements of foundations and other items. Visiting it now feels like a relic of old times. LOL
11 pet bugs
“we will keep asking for more, like more traits, more trait slots, more aspirations, horoscopes, favorites, turn-ons/offs, interests, all of that” ABSOLUTELY I would love nothing more than horoscopes, favorite foods & colors. These small details make our sims unique individuals
Of all the Sims versions 4 has been the most disappointing. Smarter Sims they kept saying…yeah…no. So annoying to set up a great kids room (bed assigned) only to have the kids, teen or University student go into other people’s room to do homework or study. Drinking water constantly from the bathroom sink…then wash dishes in the bathroom sink instead of the perfectly good kitchen sink. This feeds into the emotion issues as well. Say hello and suddenly you have a red bar going on…but get in a fight with a Sim and 10 seconds later they are smiling and chatting. I miss Sims initiating things like flirting, playing games or juice pong.
If there is gonna be a “the sims 5”, I really wish the characters, homes, environment etc. to be hyper realistic and not like the previous versions. If you see other pc games, or games on other consoles, you will definitely notice the progress that has been done as the years pass by on the very details.
Since I installed the discover university expansion, my sims have been unable to finish reading any books even with speed reader trait and reading both children’s books and adult books!
Frustrating
One thing that ANNOYS me about celebrities is when they’re IN your family or a family member. Like my sims’ mom would freak when she and her husband come around because they are both famous. But at home, she’s acting normal? It makes so sense. And also the emotion issues. I don’t want a sim to not be able to do their job because they are sad about not getting promoted for 3 whole days?! How is she supposed to work and make money and try to get promoted the next time if she’s stuck on not being promoted “on time” according to her?!
I sometimes wish you didn’t always have to ‘attempt introduction’ with famous people. Because for example my famous scientist is not going to be known by his neighbour the actress. He may be famous but not to her?? She should be able to just talk to him without knowing the whole fangirl act because it doesn’t make sense
Not being able to change apartment building communal areas or even apartment sizes etc – I remember how many different apartment variations I could make in Sims 3 and when Sims 4 came to with its “the hallway is technically terrain” I goddamn cried.
I have problem with columns, pool, plants, lights. What is happening? Before update everything was working perfectly. I have only base game.
You should be able to hover over baby’s with your mouse and see what their needs look like or what they actually what when they’re crying
10) I would love to see a system where you can choose favorite styles and colors for particular sims, so when outfits are generated, it’s much less wonky. “prefers light colored tops” (or a specific color) with “jeans” for example without needing to stop there. 9) I’d also like to see colored hair (I guess it’s dyed?) such as pink or blue as GENETIC. I mean why not?? We have vampires, aliens, mermaids, and more…why not genetically pink haired people? 7) I’d also love to see stats for newborns. Someone made a mod that lets you see your pet’s needs and to control them…so why not see the stats of a baby? I don’t really mind them appearing in the inventory because sometimes it’s hard to find things if you’re not used to the layout of a new house. Then you’re hunting for a crying baby. 6) I believe in Sacrificial’s road to fame mod, there’s an attribute that cancels out your sim’s reaction to famous people…it’d be nice to have one for basegame too. I don’t know if the RtF’s attribute works for basegame celebrities or not. 5) I know there is a random generator for this, but yes…it’s annoying. I’ve had phone calls from ghosts, and even babies…which needless to say is bizarre. But during a challenge, I had a vampire child call their vampire father, and yeah…he was asleep. I was confused. Or how you can be chatting with them online (Chat feature on computer) but they’re asleep if you call that moment. 1) I definitely agree with the emotional stuff. I feel like if I didn’t have mods the game would be really dry. And just as aside not related to the 10 listed…goals. Sort of goes with the aspirations. This is a game. When I first got Get to Work and went to work with a doctor sim to test it out, I realized what had been lacking. It’s one thing to fulfill aspirations, but another to get through a day of work. And same with vampires…you have a game goal…you can aspire to rise in ranks of vampirism and game powers (fame is like this as well…but with vampires, you HAVE to feed and use your powers or you don’t survive…it’s not this way with fame…you just lose stars). With Parenthood I was hoping to see something like this for being a successful parent. Checklists of things needing to achieve status…and not lose your kids to CPS essentially. (there’s way more about that as well with their attributes…these are nearly pointless as well).
When I first bought the sims 4 and played it I wasnt happy with it. I had to get used to this one, took me a while but I really got into it again now I have all the expansion packs but the stuff ones. All of this stuff listed is head on. Specially the last one about the emotions. I’ve been playing sims since I was 11 and I’m now 34
I would also prefer if we could host events (eg, birthday parties, weddings) at public venues (eg, bars, lounges) but have the doors sealed off to the public so that only guests of the event can enter. Kind of like a ‘private’ parties so random townies don’t come in and crash it and eat all your food.