Sims 4 Challenges

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Challenges

I really enjoy doing challenges when playing the Sims. While I’ve been playing since the first Sims came out, I only learned about them in the early days of The Sims 4. I have since gone back and played some Rags to Riches, which are my favourite type, in The Sims 2 and The Sims 3 but I’ve done many more types of challenges in The Sims 4. That said, here’s my overview of challenges in The Sims 4 for anyone interested in attempting them.

I also have a tutorial playlist for the Rags to Riches challenge; here is a link. This is a new version and currently has one video with the guidelines. I had planned to add more that focused on various packs, but haven’t had a chance. I do however have many Rags to Riches LPs that focus on different packs and that covers what each pack adds. 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyPCBQSeZfrL4ZdeQlOSRsdmqOMz7D0Ql

Many people like to do challenges to keep their game interesting. Challenges can be a fun way to explore the game and find out new things about it that you didn’t know before.

There are many types of challenges, while many focus on game play, there are also some build and CAS challenges.

If you are just starting out, I recommend starting with a shorter one but the best challenge for you really depends on what you like to do.

Some Popular Challenges:

• Legacy (start with a founding sim & play for 10 generations): https://www.simslegacychallenge.com/the-sims-4-legacy-challenge-rules/
• Rags to Riches/Rosebud: sim starts with nothing & the goal is to get rich, see link to my video tutorial above.  I also have a write up of the guidelines: https://maplesimmer.video.blog/2020/05/05/sims-4-rags-to-riches-guidelines/
There are also different versions, two popular ones are:
Rosebud: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/792094/rosebud-challenge-can-you-become-a-sim-millionaire-euphorialqueen-update-29jan2020
and Rags to Riches Mega Challenge: http://modthesims.info/t/550861 ),
• Runaway Teen (essentially rags to riches but you start with a teen): https://stormydayzgamez.wordpress.com/runaway-teen-challenge-rules-updated-22417/
• Asylum: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/966349/the-sims-4-asylum-challenge-updated-sept-2019
• Not So Berry (a type of legacy) (requires Get to Work, City Living, Movie Stuff & Parenthood): https://lilsimsie.tumblr.com/post/157671494755/not-so-berry-legacy-challenge
• Black Widow: http://sims4challengesrules.blogspot.com/2014/10/black-widow-challenge.html, and
• 100 Baby: https://snarky-sims-witch.tumblr.com/post/181535303038/tos-i-am-the-original-writer-of-the-sims-4-version.
• 100 Bae: https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/news/100-bae-challenge
• Drifter Challenge, link to my summary which links to the rules: https://maplesimmer.video.blog/2020/04/27/drifter-challenge/
• Murkland Challenge (post apocalyptic challenge; requires certain packs): https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/910413/post-apocalyptic-murkland-the-starter-challenge

However, there are many more challenges to choose from. I find Runaway Teen is a shorter challenge, so can be good for starting out if the rags to riches concept interests you. If you like to combine building with game play the Build Newcrest Challenge (legacy) and The Drifter Challenge are good challenges that combine both. My new legacy challenge also combines building with playing (see below), if you’re interested in playtesting it, more details on it are below and my contact details are at the bottom.

Frequently Asked Questions I Commonly See:

1) DO THEY REQUIRE THE USE OF MODS? Most of the popular challenges don’t require the use of mods. For example, teens can easily live on their own and you can even create a household with the teen as the oldest member in the household (this includes younger siblings). If anything, most challenges state that mods shouldn’t be used to create an unfair advantage over someone who doesn’t use them.
2) DO CHALLENGES HAVE WINNERS? Challenges are usually done just to challenge yourself to complete the goals of the challenge as opposed to it being a competition, though some challenges have scoring so you can compare how you do to others.

Keep in mind that the main goal of a challenge should be to make your game enjoyable, so you should play it as you like. Many people ‘tweak’ the rules to help suit their game play style, so if that means you want to change it up by using mods to make it more fun, that’s what you should do.

Here’s a link to the Sims 4 forums which has a list of many challenges, as well as links to the individual challenge rules. https://forums.ea.com/discussions/the-sims-4-creative-corner-en/sims-4-challenge-list-updated-may-24-2021/2272441/replies/2273743 (Note the old link, now in this bracketed section and crossed out, doesn’t work anymore as EA has retired the old forum site and moved to a new one http://forums.thesims.com/en_us/discussion/906643/sims-4-challenge-list-updated-may-15th-2018/p1 )

List of challenges on the Sims Community Site: http://simscommunity.info/the-sims-4-challenges/

List of challenges on the Sims Community Social forums: https://simscommunity.info/social/forums/challenges.14/ Note this now just links to the Sims Community Site.

List of challenges on ModtheSims: https://modthesims.info/t/forumdisplay.php?f=712

Scenarios:

Another way to do some challenges that are now built into the game are to do scenarios. Some scenarios were time limited, if you can use mods, Twisted Mexi has a mod that let’s you access all scenarios.

I’ve done many and have quite a few scenario challenges on my channel: 

Challenges I’ve Created:

Homeless Musician (short challenge): https://maplesimmer.video.blog/2019/02/03/homeless-musician-challenge/

Alien Encounters Challenge (requires Get to Work): https://maplesimmer.video.blog/2019/03/06/alien-encounters-challenge/

Rags to Riches 7 Toddler Challenge (short challenge):
https://maplesimmer.video.blog/2020/05/26/rags-to-riches-seven-toddler-challenge/

I followed up the Rags to Riches 7 Toddler Challenge with challenges at each life stage up to and including university, here are links to them:

Spellcaster Baby Challenge (longer challenge, though shorter than a full legacy):
https://maplesimmer.video.blog/2021/10/05/spellcaster-baby-challenge/

Rags to Riches: Painting Edition (short to medium challenge): https://maplesimmer.video.blog/2022/12/04/painting-collection-challenge-the-sims-4-rags-to-riches/

Rags to Riches: Fishing Edition (short to medium challenge): https://maplesimmer.video.blog/2023/02/12/rags-to-riches-fishing-edition-sims-4/

Maple’s Rags to Riches Legacy Challenge (working challenge, still being play-tested, but I’ve started the founding generation on my channel & am looking for playtesters):

Homeless Children Challenge: (this takes advantage that as of Jan 2024 you can use a cheat to remove the teen or older sims from a household leaving children to live on their own, no mods required, but you do need to use cheats to do this; not sure if this is a bug or by design). https://maplesimmer.video.blog/2024/01/07/homeless-children-sims-4-rags-to-riches/

Rags to Riches focused on Specific Packs (medium challenges), note while these all have your sim, or sims, start with no money, and usually no home, the focus is on the packs, not necessarily getting ‘rich’  :

Contact Me:

If you have any questions or want to share your own Sims game play with other Simmers head over to my Facebook group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/maplesimmersimssanctuary or my discord, https://discord.gg/aJaX7Pca8A

Adventure Awaits Rags to Riches Legacy Challenge: Fairy Edition (Sims 4)

#EAPartner #EACreatorNetwork

Many thanks to the EA Creator Network for the early access codes for the #AdventureAwaits and #EnchantedbyNature Expansion Packs.

Here are the goals and rules for my Sims 4 Adventure Awaits Rags to Riches Legacy Challenge: Fairy Edition, which uses the youngest heir (Zoe Ito-FitzMoon) from my Rags to Property Owners LP, who was born in the prelude to my Life & Death Rags to Riches Legacy challenge. She is still the fifth generation in this legacy.

Playlist link (TBA)

Meet our Sims:

I am starting with five sims, our teen Zoe Ito-FitzMoon is the main sim and is who will be having an heir for the next generation.

Her cousin Annie Pruett-Meyers, who Zoe’s Aunt Poppy adopted and who is currently a child, is joining Zoe. Also joining Zoe are siblings from my Fairy Pauper’s LP, twins Rowan & Glenn Reaves, teens, and their infant sibling Cassie.

Zoe & Glenn are spellcasters. Rowan & Cassie are fairies & Annie will become a fairy when she ages up to a teen. Zoe has the ancient bloodline trait and Glenn has a weak bloodline trait.

Past Related Let’s Plays:

If you’d like to see the prequel to my Life & Death Rags to Riches Legacy Challenge where Zoe was born and her parents completed their Soul’s Journey and pass down their aspiration traits to her aunts, here is the playlist for that.

Here is the playlist for Zoe’s parents For Rent rags to riches journey & the playlist for Zoe’s aunt and brothers Life & Death rags to riches journey.

Here is the playlist for my Fairy Pauper Let’s Play where Rowan & Glenn were raised from toddlers to teens & where their infant sister Cassie was born.

The back story as to why Glenn is a spellcaster and Rowan is a fairy is that their mother hid that she was a spellcaster from her husband, who is a fairy due to the negative relationship fairies and spellcasters have. It came out when the twins were born and Glenn was a spellcaster and at that point it appeared that she abandoned her family. It later turned out that she had gone to give up her magic and when that happened it caused her to lose her memory (this can’t happen in the game, but we’re using poetic license here!). A family friend knew who she was so she was reunited with her orphaned younger brother. Unfortunately she had kept her marriage and pregnancy from her family (due to the aforementioned negative relationship between fairies and spellcasters) so no one knew to look for her husband and children. It wasn’t until Cody, her husband and the twins’ father, accidentally found her again after joining a new career that her memory came back and the family was reunited.

Pack Goals:

  1. Complete the new aspirations that come with both Adventure Awaits (Critter Hunter & childhood aspiration Cool Kid on the Block) & Enchanted by Nature (Elixir Enthusiast, Nature Nomad & Fairy Stories plus one of the two aspirations that unlock when you complete that aspiration) with at least one sim in our household.
  2. Complete some childhood formative challenges.
  3. Have at least one child in the household have an imaginary friend that we turn into a real sim when the child becomes a teen.
  4. Max the new skills from both packs (Adventure Awaits: Papercraft, Diving & Entomology and for Enchanted by Nature: Apothecary & Natural Living).
  5. Between the sims in the household have them max the careers from both packs.
  6. Complete as many Adventure Awaits Quests & Enchanted by Nature Fables as we can.
  7. Try to catch all the butterflies (Adventure Awaits).
  8. Possibly look at the competitive trait with one of our sims.
  9. Optional: possibly look at getaways if I can fit it in with everything else.

Other Goals:

  1. Complete the fortune aspiration with all sims.
  2. All children/teen who age up to young adult must have at least four positive character values, hopefully all five.
  3. Any toddlers must max all toddler skills, children need to complete all childhood aspirations (base game & Growing Together) & teens need to complete the Goal Oriented & Admired Icon teen aspirations.
  4. Young adults will have to complete their Soul’s Journey.
  5. Work on completing the Making Money Scenario.

Rules

  1. Start with no money on an lot with no home (we are starting on the 64×64 lot in Innisgreen that has a large pond and landscaping). We will move to Gibbi’s Point when our family has enough funds to do so.
  2. Starting sims need to complete their soul’s journey before they can leave the household.
  3. Any sims joining the household can’t bring any money or any significant assets (sell furniture before moving them in if they live on their own).
  4. Money can be made from anything that game allows including any new money making opportunities that come with either pack. when using Trendi, the mark up is limited to 10x (which is still quite high) and will mainly be used for the Admired Icon aspiration (the goal to list and if needed to get Social Bunny follower count up).
  5. Here are the general rags to riches rules for rags to riches I tend to follow in my rags to riches tutorial video, and my blog post.

Guides for Appeasing Gnomes:

New guide/screenshot from reddit post for appeasing gnomes:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Sims4/comments/1m0idxa/i_made_a_cheatsheet_for_appeasing_the_gnomes/

EA Help guide for appeasing gnomes:

https://help.ea.com/ca/help/the-sims/the-sims-4/sims-4-appease-the-gnomes/

Contact Me:

If you would like to help with playtesting this challenge, or if you have any questions or want to share your own Sims game play with other Simmers head over to my Facebook group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/maplesimmersimssanctuary or my discord, https://discord.gg/aJaX7Pca8A.

The Fairy Paupers (Sims 4 Enchanted by Nature)

#EAPartner #EACreatorNetwork

Many thanks to the EA Creator Network for the early access code for the #EnchantedbyNature Expansion Pack.

Playlist link

Background

Cody’s wife kept her spellcaster magic a secret from him & disappeared shortly before the twins aged up to toddlers. Glenn got her eyes & her magic while his twin Rowan got their father’s fairy gene! Cody’s teen sister Kenzie is there to help him raise his twins after his wife disappeared. Family helps family, after all that’s what Cody did for her when their parents died in a car accident. #EnchantedbyNature #Fairies #Spellcaster

Cody Reaves is a young adult with the Plant Lover, Mystical & Genius traits. He has the Quick Learner aspiration trait from choosing the Elixir Enthusiast Aspiration. His teen sister Kenzie has the Mystical & Loves the Outdoors traits, with the Collector aspiration trait from choosing the Nature Nomad aspiration. Toddler Rowan is independent and his twin Glenn is inquisitive.

The family is starting with no money on a partially furnished lot in the Coast of Adhmor neighbourhood. Their lot is on 1 Mari Shores Road (I bulldozed the lot and placed their home there; this is a 30 x 20 lot).

Goals:

  1. Raise the toddler twins to teens. *See goals that need to be met before they can age up to children & then to teens.
  2. Kenzie will have the goals of completing scouts, the Goal Oriented Aspiration & Admired Icon aspiration and having at least four of five character values in a positive range before she ages up.
  3. Work on all three new aspirations (Fairy Stories, Elixir Enthusiast & Nature Nomad), get at least the first tier of each aspiration completed with Cody and/or Kenzie.
  4. Cody will join the Apothecary career and see how high he can go (not sure if the bug with sims not getting promoted will impact on this).
  5. Complete as many fables as we can.
  6. Try to make one of each apothecary item.
  7. For the ‘rags to riches’ gameplay element, we need to get to the third tier of the fortune aspiration at a minimum (i.e. complete tiers 1 and 2 of the aspiration).

*Goals for the Twins:

  1. Max all toddler skills & get as many milestones as possible.
  2. As children, complete all eight aspirations (4 base game, 4 Growing Together).
  3. Join scouts and earn as many badges as possible. They will stay in scouts the entire time in this save.
  4. Have at least conflict resolution in a positive range before aging up to teens.

My plan is to hopefully eventually move this family to my Expansion Legacy save and have the twins will join my legacy family as teens in my upcoming Expansion Pack Legacy: Enchanted by Nature Generation Let’s Play. At the time I’m writing this (July 12, 2025) I’m currently holding off on going into that save until the pregnancy bug is fixed.

Guides for Appeasing Gnomes:

Reddit post for appeasing gnomes:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Sims4/comments/1m0idxa/i_made_a_cheatsheet_for_appeasing_the_gnomes/

EA Help guide for appeasing gnomes:

https://help.ea.com/ca/help/the-sims/the-sims-4/sims-4-appease-the-gnomes/

Rules

  1. Note that this is following a very ‘loose’ rags to riches format in that they are starting with a home, albeit very sparsely furnished, but with no money.
  2. They can make money using any options the game allows, though we will try to make money from pack features too.
  3. As mentioned above, I will be having Kenzie doing the Admired Icon teen aspiration so she will list her five Trendi outfits required for that aspiration at a 10x markup, however I won’t go overboard using Trendi to make money.
  4. Here are the general rags to riches rules for rags to riches I tend to follow in my rags to riches tutorial video, and my blog post.

Contact Me:

If you have any questions or want to share your own Sims game play with other Simmers head over to my Facebook group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/maplesimmersimssanctuary or my discord, https://discord.gg/aJaX7Pca8A

New Bugs Since the July 1, 2025 Game Update (Sims 4)

Video link

My video provides a brief overview of the July 1, 2025 game update, including what was new, what was fixed and what the impact on mods was, however, main focus was on new bugs since the July 1, 2025 game update, and a few that are recent that started after the June 17, 2025 game update.

Post updated July 7 to add a new video covering upcoming hot fix patch & a few new issues. I’ve also added links to a few new bugs covered in this video & some more bug fix mods.

New Bugs:

This is split into two sections, new bugs since the July 1 update and three new bugs that preceded the July 1 update but were still fairly new as they happened after the June 17 update.

Note that two of the three bugs that started after June 17 update affected console, and I’ve done a video on that here. The third one affects affects all platforms and since I have seen a lot of questions/comments re one that one I have included it here.

New Bugs Since the July 1 Game Update:

Can’t drag for many objects (originally referred to not being able to drag to sink or trashcan): https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/drag-to-trash-and-sink-are-no-longer-working/12296987 (EA Cade has acknowledged this bug and it’s being investigated and that they hope to have a fix for this soon) Update on July 7, 2025: Sims Direct has said this issue with dragging for cleaning will be fixed in an update on July 10, 2025.

Businesses & Hobbies: Sharing is Caring Whiteboard is missing and gets removed if you already had one: https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/hobby-whiteboard-is-vanished-and-can%E2%80%98t-placed-/12296985 (EA Cade has acknowledged this bug and it’s being investigated), it does have a bug fix mod by Natabear: https://www.patreon.com/posts/133216402 ) Update on July 7, 2025: Sims Direct has said that this is expected to be fixed in an update on Thursday, July 10, 2025.

Pregnancy Test not Available to Take: https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/no-pregnancy-test-to-take/12297157 (This is still at the troubleshooting stage at the time I’m adding this bug here, however, it does have a bug fix by Lumpinou, this bug fix was updated after it was initially released, so make sure you have the most recent version: https://www.patreon.com/posts/133139914 ).

The ‘only one teen gets HSY’ tasks seems to be back since the fix to the HSY task UI: https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/hsy-school-tasks-not-appearing-for-all-teens/12298188 (still at the new stage at the time I’m adding this bug here).

Gnomes ‘dancing’ / moving on the spot, possibly a bug? There’s a bug report for it and it’s ‘under investigation’ at the time I’m linking this: https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/gnomes-glitch-dancing-jumping-around/12297690

Random milestone moodlets (i.e. for milestones sims haven’t had): https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/random-milestone-moodlets/12297864 (at the ‘reviewed’ stage when at the time I’m linking this). Konansock has created a bug fix mod for this, it’s on their bug fix page, though it only works for in game moodlets, not custom moodlets. https://konansock.itch.io/soooooome-small-fixes

Sims not getting promoted after choosing branch (getting raises but not promotions): https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/no-promotion-after-choosing-a-path/12298910

New Bug Report Links Added to the Post on July 7, 2025:

Missing ceilings: https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/disappearing-ceilings-build-mode/12299093

Sims having sudden career jumps: https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/sudden-career-jump/12306359

Sims with tattoos using the in game custom paint option turning black (existing bug, more common since the July 1, 2025 update): https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/sims-turn-completely-black-after-customization/11972065?topicRepliesSort=postTimeDesc

Pets/horses that use the in game custom paint option turning black (another existing bug that is more common since the July 1, 2025 update): https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/cd-hr-petshorses-are-black/12143277

New Bugs Since the Jun 17 Update:

Affecting all players: Sims return home from work or school if you travel or reload the lot in any way (to into CAS/save and quit while sims at school/work / go to an active career): https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/gtw-sims-leave-jobschool-after-another-sim-travels/12283651 and https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/adultsteenschildren-at-workschool-on-reload-trying-to-skip-workschool/12300531 (this second link added when updating this post on July 7, 2025).

Console players (I also covered this in a video):

Re console crashing after update 2.13: https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/xbps-console-crashing-after-update-2-13/12266037

Re user settings resetting: https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/psxb-game-preferences-resetting/12264369

Patch Notes:

https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/news/update-7-1-2025

This was a large update, 3.4 GB for Windows players through the EA app, 3.7 GB for Mac players and as usual, even larger for console players.

New game versions after the July 1, 2025 game update:

Mod Tracking Lists & Crinrict User File Reset Guide:

Note this was a big update and broke many mods. I recommend you check out either of the two lists to check on your mods. At the time I’m writing this, not all mods have been updated.

Luth’s List on the Sims Forums

Scarlet’s List

Crinrict’s User File Reset Guide

My Tutorial Videos:

How to prepare for a Sims 4 game update

How to temporarily avoid a game update through the EA app

Contact Me:

If you have any questions or want to share your own Sims game play with other Simmers head over to my Facebook group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/maplesimmersimssanctuary or my discord, https://discord.gg/aJaX7Pca8A

Drifter Mash Up Challenge: Houses 15, 16 & 18 (Sims 4)

Playlist link

Why I Decided to do this Drifter Mashup:

Note that I skipped from House 10 (which did include House 11 goals) to House 24 (link here), though I did also include the goals for House 13 when I did House 24.

Goals/optional goals for House 24 are to complete the family aspirations, however the two base game family aspirations (Big Happy Family Aspiration and Successful Lineage Aspiration) require a child to get married, max a career & for the sim parent to be friends to 4 grandchildren. We will also be doing the Super Parent Aspiration that comes with Parenthood. Getting the children of House 24 to complete everything needed for their mother (and father) to complete these aspirations is going to take some time and the House 24 household is very wealthy and also quite laggy.

I’m hoping that starting over with the two oldest (Lily and Luna Driver), who are currently teens, with Luna just having aged up to a teen, with nothing on a new empty lot with both help with the lagging and also be more interesting than playing a wealthy household.

As mentioned, in true Drifter tradition, they will start over with nothing except a few miscellaneous items in their inventory (mostly for fun, nothing of much value).

They will take on the some goals from House 15, 16 & 18 plus an element of goals for House 17 that need to be completed when doing House 16. See below for more details.

Note their younger sibling Lee Driver, who is currently an infant, will eventually join them once they are established, though I plan to move him out sometime after he becomes a young adult.

The main focus of this challenge will be on Lily and Luna.

Starting Lot:

They will be living on the Garden Essence Lot (40×30 lot) in the Foundry Cove neighbourhood (the lot the BFFs usually live on) to start with, though they will probably move later on, most likely to Sulani to help with Goal 5.

Note that the Garden Essence Lot is used for House 15.

Rules:

  1. Start with no money on an empty lot.
  2. Note that most Houses of the Drifter Challenge limit who you can control, I will be controlling anyone in the household for this challenge, as allowed in House 24.
  3. Any sims joining the household can’t bring any money or any significant assets (sell furniture before moving them in if they live on their own).
  4. Use general rags to riches rules per video, which also links to my blog post.

Goals (Five in Total):

Goal 1: We will work on the goals required for their parents (mostly their mother Katie) to complete her/their family aspirations,

  • at least one sibling getting married (required for Big Happy Family Aspiration)
  • having four children (for the four grandkids) between the siblings (required for Big Happy Family Aspiration),
  • maxing a career (required for Successful Lineage Aspiration)
  • having a minimum of three positive character values (required for the Super Parent Aspiration)

Goal 2: I have given Luna the kleptomaniac trait when she aged up to a teen, as we will doing goals 2 and 3 from House 15 (link):

Luna will also do the Sticky Fingers aspiration. Once she completes these three goals, she will use a retraiting potion to change her kleptomaniac trait to a new trait, probably the Child of the Island trait to help with goal 5. Also note that I will be making museums off limits until goal 3 for house 15 is met (swipe 15 objects), though I will probably buy copies of the stolen objects and return any stolen items when Luna changes her kleptomaniac trait since she will ‘regret’ her youthful actions.

Goal 3: We will work on goals 1 through 3 from House 16 (link):

We will also craft at least one of each item you can craft on the woodworking table. The following list is what you need to craft to unlock for House 17 (link here), instead we need to craft them to unlock to use during our young adult years. Note we need to go to Granite Falls to unlock the Camping Mascot Sculpture.

As an added related goal, they will need to furnish their house from items crafted (including using LittleMsSam’s ‘More Woodworks’ mod), found dumpster diving or received as gifts during their teen years. Exception, they can buy the cheapest computer, radio & TV and they can buy skill objects that can’t be found/crafted (this includes, but isn’t limited to Home Chef Hustle small appliances, selling tables of any form, flower arranging tables, chicken coops, etc).

Goal 4: Lily will work on goals 2 through 5 from House 18 (link):

Goal 5: The fourth grandchild will be used in a Super Sim challenge, and Lily, as the oldest child and essentially the official heir of House 24, will have this child. My requirements for this child are that they must:
* be female
* have the Sulani Mana trait (source).

Contact Me:

If you have any questions or want to share your own Sims game play with other Simmers head over to my Facebook group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/maplesimmersimssanctuary or my discord, https://discord.gg/aJaX7Pca8A

Generation Three: Maple Rags to Riches Legacy (Sims 4 Base Game, Optional Moschino)

See my separate post with an overview of the rules and optional goals that apply for all generations. Note you will be starting this generation with two sims, the oldest (i.e. heir, primary sim) and their next younger sibling (secondary sim) from the previous generation.

——————————————————————————————————-

Playlist link if you’d like to see me play (TBA)

Lots Unlocked This Generation:

Museums and Art Centers
Note: Arts Center unlocks the Humour & Hijinks Festival

Note if doing this in the suggested order, the following lots would already be unlocked: Parks/National Parks/Myshuno Center, Wedding Venues, Beaches, and Gyms/Spas (unlocked in Generation One) and Bars/Nightclubs/Lounges/Karaoke Bars (unlocked in Generation Two)

Generation Lot:

Arid Ridge (40×30 lot, 5,500 simoleons) in the Skyward Palms neighbourhood of Oasis Springs

Skills:

Primary Skills to Focus on: Painting.
Secondary Skills: Photography, Logic & Charisma

Optional Traits: Creative and/or Art Lover

Careers & Aspirations:  

Career: Max Master of the Real Branch with the primary sim, i.e. elder sibling. Max Patron of the Arts Branch with the secondary sim (either primary sim’s spouse or younger sibling, I will be using the primary sim’s spouse). Once they’ve both maxed both the painting career, the painting skill & at least one household member has maxed the photography skill, place the museum in Willow Creek. Museum/art centers in other worlds are now unlocked. Once that’s been unlocked/placed, have your main sim complete the painting aspiration.

Required Aspirations: Painter Extraordinaire once

Optional Career: (Moschino Pack): Have one sim max the freelance photographer (whichever didn’t do the alternate painting career, in my case the younger sibling.

Collection to Focus on for This Generation:

Collect & display* as many unique paintings from the various types of paintings, at least a minimum of three from each type (i.e. classic, landscape, etc. and from the different types of emotional paintings). Have your two main sims get a paint by reference of each other & include them with the displayed paintings.
*You can display the paintings on your home lot or place them on a museum lot. From this point onwards feel free to place completed collections on the museum lot if you prefer (though you can also keep them on the generational lot).

Optional, try to get a photo and/or painting of any children born in this generation from all life stages while they are still in the home. Note at the time of writing this blog post, it’s recommended to keep the number of photographs kept in the save down as they can bloat/enlarge save file size which can lead to save corruption so if you do this goal, just keep one, don’t have many.

Tips for This Generation’s ‘Collection’:

Some paintings are locked by skill level, both low and high. When I did my painting challenge, which this generation is modeled after, I had one sim paint first and once we had more money, then had the second sim do painting and at that point I had them start a lot of paintings in the different categories at the lower level since they would be blocked once a sim’s painting skill gets higher.

Alternatively, KaylaDot has a mod that unlocks low level paintings, so if you use mods you could do that. https://www.curseforge.com/sims4/mods/low-level-paintings-unlocked and LittleMsSam has a mod that lets you chose your painting: https://www.curseforge.com/sims4/mods/choose-painting-style

Note that I don’t plan on using either of these mods unless I get the minimum, but may try one or both to get the final ones in the end. 

List of all paintings (this is not by me & I’ve not checked it): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sC-hyeswexHZNXVAdnDz6shRZI5iFPzR4TyGkAvmPbo/edit?gid=0#gid=0

Contact Me:

If you would like to help with playtesting this challenge, or if you have any questions or want to share your own Sims game play with other Simmers head over to my Facebook group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/maplesimmersimssanctuary or my discord, https://discord.gg/aJaX7Pca8A.

Note that my discord is the main place where others who are playtesting the challenge are sharing their game play.

Rags to Small Business? (Sims 4 Businesses & Hobbies)

#EAPartner #EACreatorNetwork

Many thanks to the EA Creator Network for the early access code for the #BusinessesandHobbies Expansion Pack.

Playlist TBA

Meet our sims, Audrey (Creative, Animal Enthusiast who Loves the Outdoors with a Collector bonus trait) & Rhett Sheridan (Genius, Rancher & Idealist with a Quick Learner bonus trait), a young married couple and their independent, toddler daughter Sofia. Will they be able to start a small business they can pass down to a child, either their daughter or any others that may come along?

They are on the gallery if you’d like to play with them.

Goals:

  1. Complete both new aspirations* with at least one sim.
  2. Complete the fortune aspiration.
  3. Pass down the business to one of their children.
  4. Live in both neighbourhoods.

* the pack has two new aspirations, Master Mentor (Knowledge Aspiration) and Esteemed Entrepreneur (Popularity Aspiration).

Optional Goals:

  1. Complete the new collection.
  2. Unlock as many hobby perks as possible and pass them down when our starting couple becomes elders.
  3. Complete the Making Money scenario.
  4. Have any children born age up with at least four positive character values & have them complete all 8 child aspirations (4 base game/4 Growing Together)

Rules:

  1. Start with no money on an empty lot.
  2. Any sims joining the household can’t bring any money or any significant assets (sell furniture before moving them in if they live on their own).
  3. Use general rags to riches rules per video, which also links to my blog post.

Contact Me:

If you have any questions or want to share your own Sims game play with other Simmers head over to my Facebook group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/maplesimmersimssanctuary or my discord, https://discord.gg/aJaX7Pca8A

Sims 4 Burglar Update (Feb 25, 2025)

Link to video overview

Update Overview

The main focus of the Feb 25, 2025 game update was to add burglars to the game, in addition to preparing the game for the upcoming Businesses and Hobbies Expansion Pack (releasing Thursday, March 6, 2025 at 10 am Pacific).

It also brought bug fixes, most of which were announced in the Feb 18, 2025 laundry list and a few other miscellaneous changes to the game, including more club opportunities, changes to mentoring & a few build/buy and create a sim items.

It also broke mods, the list of updated mods is quite long and not everything has been updated at the time I’m writing this.

This update also added new bugs, including a bad one that caused distortion of children, infants and toddlers. EA has said they’ve identified the problem and are working on an update to fix the issue. They’ve also provided a workaround while we wait for the hotfix.

EA Links

Link to patch notes: https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/news/update-2-25-2025

Link to blog post on burglars: https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/news/burglar-dev-diary

Link to Sims Video introducing burglars:

Link to forum post explaining new cache file: https://forums.ea.com/discussions/the-sims-4-gameplay-en/question-about-file/11931110/replies/11932288

Mod Tracking Lists

Luth’s list on the forums (no 18+ mods tracked there): https://forums.ea.com/discussions/the-sims-4-mods-and-custom-content-en/broken-and-updated-mods-and-cc-1-113-feb-25-2025-game-update/11921215

Scarlet’s List: https://scarletsrealm.com/the-mod-list/

My tutorial on how to prepare for an update:

Crinrict blog post on how to do a factory reset of user files: https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2014/09/resetting-the-game-to-factory-settings-without-reinstalling/

New Bug Reports Since Feb 25 Game Update

Distorted Children, Toddlers and Infants: https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/toddlerinfantschild-body-and-face-distortions/11928891
(Link to Sims Community speculation article one person referred to on this bug report: https://simscommunity.info/2025/02/26/sims-4-aging-sliders-discovery/ )

SimsDirect tweet re the distorted children issue: https://twitter.com/TheSimsDirect/status/1895161608646648254

While we wait for an bug fix update, workaround for the child distortion issue provided by EA Cade:

Can’t Choose Werewolf Nose Colour: https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/w-cannot-select-nose-color-for-werewolves/11928596

Not Able to Select Tattoos on Console: https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/psxb-not-able-to-select-tattoos-in-cas/11929118

No workers on retail and vet lots (existing bug with many more reports since the Feb 25 game update): https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/cd-gtw-retail-workervets-dont-spawn-for-business-as-customercant-buy/5044322

Lot Information Icon Shining: https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/lot-information-icon-shining-all-the-time-patch-1-1132-08/11928800

Nifty Knitting unlocked clothes don’t show when knitting new clothes, if you have knit the outfits, they will still show as unlocked in CAS: https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/nksp-unlocked-knitting-objects-are-re-lockeddont-unlock/11930823

Laundry not in club activities even though mentioned in patch notes: https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/ldsp-gt-club-activities-not-showing-do-laundry/11929379

Not being paid for mentoring (note this should be a pack feature, therefore bug seems to be that it is showing in the base game): https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/not-getting-paid-for-mentoring/11928777

The Sims Developer Livestream For The Sims 4 Businesses & Hobbies | Base Game Update

Originally scheduled for 10 am Pacific on Friday, February 28, 2025, but due to issues at their broadcasting location, it was rescheduled to 10 am Pacific on Monday, March 3, 2025.

YouTube (will tell you when it’s live in your time zone)

Original video was made private.

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/thesims

Tweet re original livestream: https://x.com/TheSims/status/1894810037786202423

Contact Me:

If you have any questions or want to share your own Sims game play with other Simmers head over to my Facebook group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/maplesimmersimssanctuary or my discord, https://discord.com/invite/aJaX7Pca8A

Sims 4 Patch Notes (as originally posted on The Sims site*)

*but taken down, I expect temporarily. I will add a link to the final update notes when they go live. This is just a copy and paste of what was on the site.

Let’s get down to Business.

February 25, 2025

PC: 1.113.277.1030 / Mac: 1.113.277.1230

Console: 2.08

Sul Sul Simmers, and Bok, Ciao, Cześć, Dia Dhaoibh, Guten Tag, Hallo, Hola, Hej Hej, Helô, Moikka, Привіт, Salut, Salutare, Salve, Sveiki, Merhaba, Tungjatjeta, здравей, 你好, こんにちは, and Hello from around the world! Are you ready to elevate your game experience with a wave of new features and gameplay additions? Then let’s take a look at what this latest The Sims 4 free base game update has in store for you!

-The Sims 4 Team

What’s New in The Sims 4?

The Burglar is Back!

Burglar

A Sim dressed as a burglar sneaks into the front door of a home.

Get ready to lock your doors (or maybe you want to leave them unlocked? How daring of you!). Definitely keep an eye out for this sneaky character: the Burglar is back and ready to cause some mayhem! Watch them rob residential lots and Small Businesses (in the Businesses & Hobbies Expansion Pack), engage in dramatic fights, or make a daring escape. And yes, there’s even some updated toe-tapping music to go along with their heists!

You can read more about Robin Banks in our Dev Diary here.

Burglar Alarm and Police Officer

Police Officer steps in to catch the Burglar.

Install the handy Burglar Alarms on Residential or Small Business Venue lots to keep your Sims’ belongings safe. Upgrade them to break less often, summon a Police Officer, or give those Burglars a shocking surprise! The Sim officers arrive dressed in their uniforms, and they’re ready to tackle those pesky Burglars.

New Burglar Lot Challenge: Heist Havoc

The lot Challenge interface, showing the Heist Havoc icon

Feeling adventurous? This Challenge cranks up the Burglar activity for those who love a bit of excitement.

Heist Havoc: Lock the doors and hide all valuables! Burglars visit more often on this lot and the trusty alarms have a mind of their own.

Create a Sim

Tattoo Transformation Time!

Tattoos in Create a Sim

Get ready to unleash your inner artist with new Tattoo customization options! Now, you can tweak the Hue, Saturation, Opacity, and Brightness of your tattoo designs using sliders just like the ones for makeup. Your Sims’ ink has never been this vibrant!

You will also find that the tattoo catalog now has new filters for different tattoo locations to make tattoos easier to browse.

Filter buttons for upper and lower arms (left and right), the legs (left and right), upper and lower back, stomach, chest, and head

A New Gallery Category: Tattoos!

The Gallery now has a new Category: Tattoos! Players with the Businesses & Hobbies Expansion Pack will be able to create, share, and use tattoos with multiple layers and custom art.

As always, if you are ever browsing in-game or on the Gallery webpage and encounter any inappropriate content or comments, report it by selecting the flag icon available. For more information on content guidelines and how to flag gallery content, head over to EA Help.

New Colors and Patterns for Tops

We’re also adding The Sims 25th Birthday apparel! Each top fits feminine and masculine frames, so your Sims outfits can match the real life versions available on Shop the Sims while stocks last.

The Sims 25th Embroidered Crewneck:

Classic crewneck sweatshirt embroidered with retro designs and screen-printed embellishments

The Sims 25th Pixel Plumbob Hoodie:

Classic hoodie with a large screen-printed pixel-art plumbob

Build Mode

Fresh Colors for your Countertops

BlandCo BG Kitchen countertops and cabinets with new color variations

Spice up your Sims’ culinary spaces with four fabulous new color variations for the BlandCo Contemporary Base Game kitchen set! Transform those kitchen counters and cabinets with a fresh burst of style. Get ready to cook in vibrant new hues!

Usability Improvements

We’ve added a couple of small improvements to Build Mode for better navigation:

  • When opening Build Mode for the first time, it now shows Objects by Room instead of Styled Rooms. For existing Simmers, Build Mode still remembers the catalog last viewed.
  • New icons have been created for Study and Dining Room in Objects by Room.

Live Mode: Expanding on Existing Features

Club activities from more packs

For players who own Get Together, exciting new club activities await! We’ve added a bunch of new activities from other packs allowing your Sims to enjoy viewing Collectibles, sipping tea, using the Activity Table, playing table games, giving massages (Spa Day Game Pack), playing with pets (Cats & Dogs Expansion Pack), making and drinking Nectar (Horse Ranch Expansion Pack), arranging flowers (Seasons Expansion Pack), doing laundry (Laundry Day Stuff Pack), and many more. Your clubs have never been this engaging!

More Mentorship Opportunities

A Sim mentors another Sim

Mentorship has experienced an overhaul, with more Skills that can be mentored and the ability to offer Mentoring directly from Skill objects such as Mischief Skill at a Computer or a Tablet, or Flower Arranging at the Flower Arranging bench (requires Seasons Expansion Pack). Your Sims will be mastering new Skills in no time. Let the learning begin!

Your Sim is Here

Where is your Sim?! When choosing a travel destination, the game now shows your Sim’s current location in the Neighborhoods view and Worlds view.

More Creator Kits Coming Soon

We’ve been so excited to share four Creator Kits with the Sims community since their launch in November 2024. These are the kits that custom content creators pitch, design, and develop alongside The Sims team to bring their unique style to The Sims 4. We recently released Pierisim’s Refined Living Room and Madlen’s Business Chic, and have more Creator Kits on the way!

Teaser images: one features a stone bathtub, wash basin, and plant; the other shows mannequins in a brown outfit and pink dress.

Keep an eye out for Syboulette‘s Sleek Bathroom and aharris00britney‘s Sweet Allure Creator Kits—coming to The Sims 4 in April!

Follow our channels across Discord, Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube to be informed of when exactly they will be released.

Bug Fixes

Base Game / Multipack

Top Fixes

  • [EA Forums] You can now place objects next to raised platforms, even if the platform is on the other side of a wall, without running into the “Can’t intersect obstructing objects” error message.
  • [EA Forums] Male Sims with a feminine frame can now wear certain tops without any spine distortion.
  • [EA Forums] Great news, navigators of narrow spaces! Sims have sharpened their obstacle-avoidance skills and no longer find themselves stuck in walls. Say goodbye to unexpected wall-phasing and teleportation tricks!
  • [EA Forums] When placing larger lots onto smaller ones, basements will now stay put as long as they fit within the boundaries. If they’re a bit too big, they’ll just be trimmed down to fit snugly without disappearing. Happy building!
  • [EA Forums] Money matters sorted! Whether you’re pulling a family from the Gallery in Create a Sim or placing them directly in the world, your Sims will now enjoy the best of both worlds financially. No more surprise riches or unexpected poverty—just balanced household funds for all!

Live Mode

  • [EA Forums] Privacy restored! The mysterious disappearing bathroom walls at the Willow Creek Gym have been found. Your Sims can now work out and wash up without any peek-a-boo surprises!
  • [EA Forums] Altering your Sim’s look with the Get Famous Stylist Chair, getting a Tooth Extraction from Growing Together, or putting on that fabulous Crystal Creations Jewelry will no longer lead to unexpected body or face transformations.
  • [EA Forums] Renaissance Sims will now need to actually climb the career ladder to complete Renaissance aspiration career level tasks. No more shortcuts through University—time to earn those promotions the hard way!
  • Upgrade time! Mentor interactions are back for washing machines, so your Sims can learn the ropes of repair without a hitch.
  • No more fashion faux pas! Nina Caliente’s body and clothes textures appear flawlessly across all graphics settings again.
  • Several Skill icons enjoyed playing hide-and-seek in the interaction menu! They’re now back where they belong.
  • The Cozy Wreaths from the Cozy Celebrations Event have shed their Scroogy ways and now happily let Sims enter your front door to celebrate Winterfest instead of blocking their path.
  • Enjoy seamless imaginary conversations for your toddlers—chats with stuffed animals are now more performant than ever!

Build Mode

  • The ElectroDance Floor can now be found in the “Life Event Activities” category under “Activities and Skills” in Build Mode. Dance floor dilemma solved!

Create a Sim

  • [EA Forums] Body sliders in Create a Sim are back on track! Adjusting the belly, butt, and thighs of male Sims will no longer transform certain full-body outfits into avant-garde fashion.
  • This SDX goatee (ymFacialHair_SDX037Goatee) has found its rightful place under the Goatee category. No more hide-and-seek for your Sim’s facial hair! (Was there a memo we missed about a great hide-and-seek event? scratches head)
  • On the contrary, this SDX scarf (yfAcc_NecklaceSDX037Scarf) really wanted to be seen and appeared twice in the catalog. This has been fixed now.

Get to Work

  • Mannequins have gone back to their less-fabulous existence as we fixed eyelashes being added to mannequins when applying Styled Looks.

City Living

  • No more magical floating flowers! Those unanchored blooms have been tidied up during festival events, keeping things grounded.

Get Famous

  • [EA Forums] Whoops! Some Sims were accidentally posing as celebrities right after moving in. While accidental fame (or no fame) is fun, it’s not the best start for new friendships. Sims will earn celebrity Reputation and Fame the honest way now!

Discover University

  • [EA Forums] Academic overachievers rejoice! Teens who graduate from High School early and head to University can now share their skills through Tutoring. Time to share that knowledge!
  • [EA Forums] Sims’ ears now wear Gauges without those pesky jagged edges.

Snowy Escape

  • [EA Forums] Sims see their active Lifestyles not greyed-out, but in full color now.

Cottage Living

  • [EA Forums] When Animal Aging is turned off, you won’t receive any more surprise visits from Grim Reaper for your elderly Chickens. Let them enjoy their golden years in peace!
  • [EA Forums] Pumpkin preservation perfected! Now, you can conserve not just orange, but also green and white pumpkins.

High School Years

  • [EA Forums] The barista working at the ThrifTea Bubble Tea Counter has returned to their duties, ready to serve your Sims delicious drinks and snacks.
  • [EA Forums] Teens these days! Your teen Sim was feeling the pressure of being watched at school and tried to keep some events off Social Bunny. But fear not! We’ve fixed it, so now they can share all their high school adventures without feeling like they’re under surveillance.

Lovestruck

  • The Temple from Jungle Adventure was a bit too adventurous for a date night! It’s now off the venue list when you Ask to Create a Date or Hangout, ensuring your dates stay less jungle, more jingle.

Parenthood

  • [EA Forums] Children were channeling their inner tornadoes and causing messes too often! Now, they’ll only create regular messes if they haven’t learned responsibility yet.

Dream Home Decorator

  • [EA Forums] Interior Decorators were seeing 0 earnings in their results pop-up after completing gigs. Your Sims’ hard-earned Simoleons will display correctly in the notifications and in the results pop-up going forward.
  • In addition, the “Stay on Lot” and “Go Home” buttons will appear and work as expected now after completing a gig.

Nifty Knitting

  • [EA Forums] Sims can now successfully “Resume” or “Frog” their Knitting Projects. The actions will queue properly, ensuring your knitting plans are back on track.
  • [EA Forums] Sims knitting beanies, socks, or plant holders now walk to a seat to resume their projects. No more standing mishaps!
  • [EA Forums] Sims can now switch rocking chairs mid-knit without getting tangled up and losing track.
  • We all love knitting, but now when you cancel a knitting interaction, your Sim stops right away.

Home Chef Hustle

  • [EA Forums] When the “Convince to Buy” interaction is used on other Sims, they will no longer be invited and allowed to walk into your Sim’s house. No more crashing on the couch!

Crystal Creations

  • Crystal Tree enthusiasts, rejoice! Your Notebook entry now appears after Research so you can safely keep track of your sparkling studies.
  • Balance restored! The “Botanical Earrings” icon is now perfectly centered in the interaction queue.

Life & Death Rags to Riches Legacy Challenge (Sims 4)

Here are the goals and rules for my Sims 4 Life & Death Rags to Riches Legacy Challenge, which uses the heirs from my Rags to Property Owners LP & is the fifth generation in this legacy.

Playlist link

Meet our Sims:

I am starting with five sims, the youngest three are the heirs from the previous generation. Twins Roman and Phillip, and infant Zoe Ito-FitzMoon.

Their aunt Poppy and great aunt Elizabeth, both teens, will be joining them.

They are all spellcasters. Four are born in game and have spellcaster bloodline traits. Our heirs have an ancient bloodline trait, their aunt has a weak bloodline trait and their great aunt has no bloodline trait.

If you’d like to see the prequel to this LP, where their parents complete their Soul’s Journey and pass down their aspiration traits to the teens, here is the playlist for that.

Here is the playlist for their parent’s For Rent rags to riches journey. As indicated above, this is the 5th generation of this family that have done a rags to riches journey of an expansion pack.

Goals:

  1. Complete the Soul’s Journey with the five starting sims & any spouses/partners. *see rule 2
  2. Complete the fortune aspiration with all five starting sims (either need 200k before can switch to the aspiration).
  3. Max all three Life & Death careers (with any household sims).
  4. Complete the Alice’s Sorrow quest with at least one sim.
  5. Complete the historian aspiration with at least one sim.
  6. Complete the tarot deck collection with at least one sim.
  7. Have a baby (or two) with the grim reaper (Zoe, who is our youngest, who is starting as an infant, will do this when she becomes a young adult). This baby (or babies) will be the heirs for the next generation.
  8. Live in all three Ravenwood neighbourhoods.

Optional Goals:

  1. Have all sims age up with at least four positive character values, preferably five.
  2. Have one sim try to befriend Edith.
  3. Complete the Making Money scenario.
  4. Have one sim complete the Market Magnate aspiration (that the heirs’ father Phillip was never able to do).
  5. Have one sim complete the ghost portion of the soul’s journey.
  6. Have one sim be reborn???

Rules:

  1. Start with no money on an empty lot.
  2. Starting sims need to complete goal 1 (complete soul’s journey) before they can leave the household.
  3. Any sims joining the household can’t bring any money or any significant assets (sell furniture before moving them in if they live on their own).
  4. Use general rags to riches rules per video, which also links to my blog post.

Contact Me:

If you have any questions or want to share your own Sims game play with other Simmers head over to my Facebook group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/maplesimmersimssanctuary or my discord, https://discord.gg/aJaX7Pca8A

Oct 22 Game Update Overview: New Bugs & Mod Impact (Sims 4)

I discuss the Oct 22, 2024, Sims 4 base game update, including what’s new, what was and wasn’t fixed, the mod impact and the new bugs since the update. I also review some other common bugs from before the update. What was your favourite thing in the update & have you experienced any non-mod related issues? 😊🍁 #Sims4 #GameUpdate #Sims4Bugs #Sims4Mods

My Video

Patch Notes: https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/news/update-10-22-2024

The Sims Unlisted Video with What’s New:

Note, there was a bug report where lots with the Off the Grid lot challenge couldn’t be loaded in game play, that seems to have been fixed with this update. https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/FIXED-Off-the-grid-lot-challenge-keeps-lot-from-loading-Error/td-p/14051036 (Shared as an FYI as the thread is locked as appears to be fixed).

Also, console players are missing Ghost Overlay Button (not in bugs section at time I got link): https://answers.ea.com/t5/Consoles/Missing-overlay-button-in-CAS-for-ghost-on-PS4/m-p/14194213

Related to DX 11:

Can’t use Alt Tab in Fullscreen. The work arounds are to:

  1. Use Windowed Fullscreen or Windowed Mode
  2. Use the DX9 Option found under graphics.

DX11 Feedback thread on EA AHQ: https://answers.ea.com/t5/PC/DirectX-11-Technical-Issues-and-Feedback-Thread/td-p/14022619

Mod Impact and Mod Tracking Lists:

Many mods broke with the update, including most popular mods (MCCC, UI Cheats to name a couple, those have both been updated). As of the time I’m typing this, many others, though not all, have been updated.

Two good sources to see which of your mods was impacted are noted below:

Luth’s list on EA AHQ: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Mods-CC-Issues/Broken-Obsolete-and-Updated-Sims-4-Mods-1-110-October-22-2024/td-p/14181798

Scarlet’s List: https://scarletsrealm.com/the-mod-list/

Note that injection tools that are used by other mods broke with this update. The two main ones are XML Injector and Lot 51 Core Library. Both were updated on Oct 23/24, though XML Injector was reupdated on Oct 23/24. There are two other injection tools that were still broken last I looked on Oct 25/24, I see them mentioned on Luth’s list.

Also, some loading screen mods broke with the update, according to SimMattically, it looks like pack pictures may be replacing the plumbob at some point, or something like that. The tooltips will remain. Original tweet: https://x.com/SimMattically/status/1849068375101567463

Follow Up tweets:

New Bugs since the Update:

Crinrict’s Tweet with many listed (these will be included in what is shared below):

Captain Whitaker no longer ghost: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-CD-Captain-Whitaker-is-no-longer-a-ghost/td-p/14192516

Wishing well ghost child turned back into regular child: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/RGSP-Wishing-Well-Ghost-child-turned-back-to-human-No-more-ghost/td-p/14192159

Children missing death types (Seasons: overheating/freezing, City Living: pufferfish death & Base Game: death by meteorite): https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/CL-S-Death-types-missing-for-children/m-p/14191936#M301000

Can’t transfer sims to a new household through manage worlds (work around is to split from household at the household level, that let’s one sim split from household into a new household, if you want other sims to join them, then go to manage worlds and transfer the other sims from one household to another: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-Transfer-button-in-Manage-Household-grey-out-transferring/td-p/14191332

Occult eyes disappear when entering live mode: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-V-ROM-Occult-eyes-features-disappear-when-entering-live/m-p/14192231#M300907

Sims don’t disappear in rabbithole when going to work/school: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/Sims-don-t-disappear-in-rabbithole-when-going-to-work-school/td-p/14194188

Action to woohoo with Grim doesn’t work (Note a work around was suggested (instruct to cuddle first, which requires Lovestruck, then initiate woohoo, as it is working for some): https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/Action-doesn-t-proceed-when-trying-to-woohoo-with-Grim-Reaper/td-p/14193014

Whisked away children can not be played: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/Whisked-away-children-can-not-be-played/td-p/14193402

Parents need to introduce themselves to infants: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/Parents-need-to-introduce-themselves-to-their-infants-Patch-1/td-p/14192344

Objects stuck in world, possibly after loading a residential rental lot: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/NEEDS-SAVES-Objects-stuck-when-placed-in-world-after-loading-a-r/td-p/14193914

Sims wear default underwear when they should be naked (bathing, etc.): https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-Sims-wear-default-underwear-when-naked/td-p/14190907

Not Fixed in Update:

Eyes/eyelids issues (new bug report): https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-Eyes-Eyelids-Issues-Patch-1-110-265-2-01/m-p/14190754#M300776

Sims invading homes (existing bug report): https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/CURRENT-ISSUE-Sims-invading-Homes/td-p/13285790

Reaper’s Reward Event Issues: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/READ-FIRST-Reaper-Rewards-Known-Issues-List/m-p/14176425#M299962

Some Other Bugs from Before the Update:

Can’t fish at fishing signs in Sulani (issue since the Jul 23/24 pre Lovestruck update): https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-IL-Signed-Fishing-Spots-Not-Working-in-Sulani/m-p/13894582

Can’t Resume Knitting (since Jul 23/24 pre Lovestruck update): https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-NKSP-Action-won-t-queue-for-Resume-Frog-Knitting/m-p/13896316
This has a bug fix mod: https://www.curseforge.com/sims4/mods/knitting-bug-fix

Daily tasks only appearing for one teen (since Jul 23/24 pre Lovestruck update): https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-HSY-School-daily-tasks-not-appearing-for-all-teens/m-p/13906035

Teens not aging up with third trait, character values, HSY trait (old issue, more common since the Jul 34/34 pre Lovestruck update, newer reports start on page 3 of the bug report, as of Oct 25/24, there are 13 pages): https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/NEEDS-SAVES-Teenager-don-t-get-third-trait-on-aging-no/td-p/11749122
This has a bug fix mod: https://www.curseforge.com/sims4/mods/teen-age-up-bug-fix

Overlapping Festivals (old issue, more common since the Sept 18/24 update, new reports start on page 7 of the bug report, as of Oct 25/24, there are 24 pages): https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-CL-SE-Overlapping-festivals-Food-Stalls/td-p/7811392

Can’t Get Table at Restaurant on Date or Hangout (issue since Sept 18 Update): https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-DO-Can-t-request-table-in-restaurant-on-a-date-Hang-out/td-p/14044398

Compiled List of Reported Issues: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/READ-FIRST-Compiled-list-of-reported-Issues/m-p/3445209#M223825

Contact Me:

If you would like to help with playtesting this challenge, or if you have any questions or want to share your own Sims game play with other Simmers head over to my Facebook group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/maplesimmersimssanctuary or my discord, https://discord.gg/aJaX7Pca8A.