Re: [FIXED] [CL] [SE] Overlapping festivals/Food Stalls

This is happening to me all of a sudden. Simply awful. I can’t even tell how many festivals are overlapping each other. It’s that bad. Plus, I have noticed trash, particularly  what seem to be paper cups, all over San Myshuno that I can’t clean up. 

Just how broken is this game? And does anyone at EA care anymore? 

Here is a pic. When you say “Do you have any idea what you did?” that sounds somewhat accusatory. What I “did” was play the game normally on Xbox as I always do. I’m not sure what else to tell you. This simply appeared. 

From what I can tell, it appears to be the GeekCon on top of some other event? 
(I will also note that it is outside the calendar date/hours for any festival at all, yet they don’t go away)

I’m afraid to open any prior saves because of the possibility of this problem spreading 

As for me, I absolutely didn't do *anything* before this chaos happened.

I had not played since August, when everything was still okay. When I now load my last saved game from then, hey presto, I get the Geek Con and the Romance Festival mixed together, right away, always and forever.

I was hoping for repro steps. Was it there when you visited or did it simply not disappear when the festival was over? Does your Sim live in the hood or did you travel there? Have you visited the hood before and did you use the same lot you usually visit? Any info could help. Ive tried so many things but couldnt make it happen

Not meant to accuse you of anything. 

@AxelRogat are you also on console and if not do you have a version of that file from August before you opened it now? 

@crinrict  I am on PC (with mods, but the effects with mods removed are just the same).

I still have that file from August 25, I just sent you a private message containing a link to it.

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@AxelRogat are you also on console and if not do you have a version of that file from August before you opened it now? 

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@crinrictI moved a Sim family to a San Myshuno apartment from  another town. I didn’t notice whether the festival was there at the time I moved them in. When I did finally notice the festival mashup, I observed that it was a full day before the calendar said there was supposed to be a GeekCon festival, so I’m guessing it may have been there previously and I just didn’t notice it.

@nickinbigd Maybe it was just not visible until you moved there but there all along. 

@AxelRogat thanks. Ill check this tomorrow. Still curious if theres some issue with old saves. 

EDIT:

So I had to check and I'm all excited.

I checked the save file with S4Studio and looked at the OpenStreetData. There were no festival data there. So I loaded the save game to see if I can duplicate and yes, I can. All there as described. So I saved under a new name and checked out this save in S4Studio. Now all the data from the festival can be found in the OpenStreetData as expected.

Reopened the original file and checked the apartment data this time... all the festival stuff is there. 

So, what is my conclusion from this.

EA actually fixed the festival part of the bug but not the smaller items. What the game now does is move over all the festival objects (the bigger parts) to the street data where it belongs .. only problem is, the stuff gets stuck there and doesn't go away. So basically what happened was that the bug is there on all your old save games where you played in San Myshuno, you just don't see it. 

I wrote up a post here to show what happens with the smaller objects: https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2024/12/objects-in-neighborhoods-are-not-getting-cleaned-up/ and I think that this also happened to festivals prior to probably the patch were everyone started seeing these festivals getting stuck. In rare cases, the festivals showed before that which is why this thread is so old.

So, whatever fix they did for the festivals, they also need to do it for the smaller items AND they need to add a cleanup routine.

Now, what's the good news on this: If you are on PC/Mac, you can fix this with S4Studio (instructions to come). For console, I don't have a good way to fix it atm. You can uninstall City Living and save the game without it which will give you a clean San Myshuno once you reinstall but you'll also loose any traits,careers and everything from the pack (you can save the Sims themselves by moving them to a different world) 

I don't believe changing the EP files as suggested by some folks makes a difference. It probably just made everything invisible again instead of fixing it.

The bad news is, the litter part of the bug is still there and if you play in these lots, the game will litter up again. I don't have a good solution for that other than to avoid any lot types that have a shared space (not even travel there).

I have just noticed that when I load up the game. All the events on the home calendar are turned off. So I turned them all on. Saved the game and reloaded. The same thing happened. So I am not sure what is going on there.

@StrifeDacosta litter happens as soon as you travel to an apartment. Festivals should not happen on a new save 

@Marishaflea possibly another trogger to make them visible? Do you have a save before you turned them on? And would you mind sending me the save? 

Can you give me instructions on how to send you my saved file?

He has info how to send it right in his post... 1 line above your post...

• Been asked for a save ? Here's instructions: How to provide your save game (Post #7)

@crinrict I have another question. So how can I bulldoze/change a lot type of my r-rentals if not through loading a Build Mode? I am planning to delete/change any R-rentals from my game to prevent the following bugs: littering bug + overlapping festivals + orange exclamations + default lots showing in surrounding world, etc.

@crinrictThanks for your great work analyzing and finding a walk around to fix the game 🥰
Personally, I still hope EA is working on a bug fix as I can't bear to restore all the relationships between my San Myshuno sims in my three year old game.
I've always made it a habit to save very often under a new name and save backup saves on an external drive. That's why it's quite shocking to discover that it's my entire game and therefore all saves that are infected.
I've uploaded a new game back to factory settings for future games but I can really feel it takes a deep breath to have to recreate relationships and buildings. I still hope EA will take care of this. I wonder if they even bother?

@StrifeDacosta You can't. You have to go through build but if you change a r-rental to normal, everything that's in the the lot part is booted back to the world part and you should then be able to remove stuff.

I don't think that the default lot/exclamation mark issue is related to this other than it can bloat your save game. So I kinda doubt these saves can be saved. The info on the houses is just not there anymore. I haven't looked into that at all though and don't think I have the means to.

@Marishaflea In your save I have all the festival crap as soon as I load into the hood although all the calendar items are turend off. Do you only see them when the items are turned on ?

@crinrict If we play with Mods, can we just shift click and delete the festival items or will that create more problems? Like others I have a very long detailed save and uninstalling and reinstalling is just not a good option for me. Not to mention this is across multiple saves. TY. 

I’m scared but I’ll try lol

Backup your saves then try on the backup :D

OK. I think I need some guinea pigs.

I believe that it's safe to just delete everything in the openstreetdata as it should all just respawn.

There have been some folks saying they had issues with the calendar afterwards but that might just be a temp issue.

So, for anyone feeling brave enough to use S4Studio to fix their overlapping festivals, please try the following (this is not working for console):

Do make a backup of your save game before attempting this. I do know not at this point if there are side effects to this. I would also start with just one neighborhood. I can't take any responsibility if you mess up your save this way. Also make sure to close down your game between loading different saves.

EDIT: If you use T.O.O.L you might need to be careful what you delete. I don't know where that stuff is saved.

I wrote a basic tutorial post on S4Studio here: https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2024/12/clean-saves-with-s4studio-basics/ and there's a list of all the world_ids (they stay the same for every savegame) here: https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/neighborhoods/

1. Follow the basic tutorial to load the save game data of your save and navigate to streets
   
2. Make sure to to check the world_id (linked List above) to find the correct OpenStreetsData, then click on Edit items next to objects
   
   
   
3. Check the objects if it's plausible that you choose the right file (for example for geekcon there are game consoles in the list) then choose the first object and just hit clear. This will empty all the entries
   
   
4. Click on the save button
5. Click on the save button on the next streets window as well
6. Save the whole thing through the main menu under a new name (details in the basic guide)
7. Start the new save game and check if the festival overlap is gone. Be aware that you will still see some objects like furniture for the flea market, possible plants and other collectibles. These are saved elsewhere and can be removed with the guide I linked above. 
8. Play the game at least to the next festival in that hood (normal as you always would) and check if the festival spawns and despawns correctly. Please also check your calendar if everything is ok.
9. Let me know if you have any issues.

I do advise to just play one lot while at the festival to prevent further festival items to move to wrong space and wait till it's completely gone before leaving.

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@MonaSolstraale wrote:

 as I can't bear to restore all the relationships between my San Myshuno sims in my three year old game.

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 @MonaSolstraale , I used the method1 from Crin's blog (disabled and later enabled SanM to get new fresh one).. I simply have moved all my SanM sims to another world for safekeeping.

No relationships/ familyties lost. Of course I have few bald naked sim running around, but personally easier to fix than starting new save all over or do the s4s method. 

Of course only speaking for myself.