[FIXED] Masterpiece Paintings and Bestselling Books Becoming Excellent Quality

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:Steam-PC
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
What is your current game version number? 1.101.290.1030
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? none
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Paint a masterpiece and/or write a bestseller and leave it in your Sim's inventory. Save and then exit the game. Re-open the game and that same masterpiece painting and/or bestselling book is now only of excellent quality. You can also find this bug by taking a bestselling book out of your Sim's inventory and placing it in the world. Then place it back in their inventory and it immediately become only of excellent quality. To be clear, I am not talking about copies, I am talking about original masterpiece paintings and bestselling books.
What happens when the bug occurs? Original masterpiece paintings and original bestselling books eventually become only of excellent quality after re-opening the game.
What do you expect to see? Original masterpiece paintings and original bestselling books to maintain their quality as masterpieces and bestsellers.
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Never used.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? Yes
Please describe the patch or change you made. I believe this started happening after the 9/26/2023 update.

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After the 9/26/2023 update it is now impossible to keep original masterpiece paintings (not copies) and original bestselling books (not copies) in your Sim's inventory. The paintings or books will change to only excellent quality after you save and re-open the game. A bestselling book will also change it's quality immediately after placing it in the world and then back into your Sim's inventory. I was trying to collect masterpiece paintings and bestselling books so hopefully this bug can be fixed soon as it makes creating masterpieces and bestsellers basically pointless right now.

Edit By Crinrict: Added Tag to Title, shortened title to fit

crinrict
2 years ago
Artists and Authors fear not! Masterpiece Paintings and Best-Selling Books will no longer change to “Excellent Quality” after saving and reloading. Phew!

Fixed in Patch 1.104.58/1.86

Please create a new thread if you're still experiencing this issue,

35 Replies

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CHE_999_Berlin
Seasoned Newcomer
2 years ago
Same here on PS4. For me, the quality reset also happens immediately after placing a book/picture in the inventory. And once it happened on one item, all the others in the household are affected as well. The price remains but it doesn't ask for confirmation anymore if you want to sell a masterpiece from the inventory. I confirm, it happens only since the last update.
Kelmen1974
New Rookie
2 years ago
simply travel to other lot can reproduce this issue, no need reload game.
Algis7
2 years ago
I've noticed something similar since the patch, but what I noticed is that three books in my Sims inventory that were Bestsellers (written long before the 9/26 patch) changed to Excellent Quality. I didn't notice until yesterday when I wrote a 4th book that was Bestseller quality, and looked at the others in the stack in my inventory and saw they were all Excellent instead. Then today, when I booted the game up, the 4th book I'd written yesterday that was a Bestseller is now reverted to Excellent quality, too.
So, it seems to let you write them, but then downgrades them to Excellent the next time you load in?
Wndblwz
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
I've had the masterpieces degrade in value upon placing them in the Sim's inventory; however, when I removed them from the inventory and hung them on a wall, the masterpiece status was restored. I've not tried leaving the lot with them in the inventory but will do so now.
crinrict
Hero+
2 years ago
@Algis7 I moved your post to the correct thread for that issue.
gertie47
Seasoned Veteran
2 years ago
I'm unsure if this is a bug or part of the game design, as I've never experienced this before. And I've had many writer sims in many different saves.
But just now, my level 10 writing Sim (has completed writer aspiration and has a distinguished literary degree) wrote a Bestseller. I have him copy all of his books so they can be stored in the bookshelf, and he did the same with this one. However, when I picked up the book, it now only showed as excellent quality. I checked his inventory, and the other Bestsellers stored there (I store them until he can submit them to Literary Digest) had also become Excellent quality.

Has anyone else experienced this? Could it be mods? Could it be that he recently became a vampire? Could it be related to the recent update or the new stuff pack? Also, my cooking sim is now making "normal" quality food despite being inspired. I will repair the game, but I wanted to see if it isn't just me.
ValFreya13
Seasoned Veteran
2 years ago
@gertie47 My sims masterpiece paintings do this too, but the option to sell them an art gallery and the pop-up asking if I was sure if I wanted to sell the masterpiece still appeared, so I am not sure what is happening. I use UI mods so it could be them - I have not yet tried without the mods to see if it still happens. Start a new save without the mods to see if the issue is still happening?
xxjmt97h450x
2 years ago
same, but in my case simply just by dragging the painting/book degrades its quality
gertie47
Seasoned Veteran
2 years ago
@ValFreya13 Will have to try this when I go back into my game next.
crinrict
Hero+
2 years ago
@gertie47 Merged your post with the bug report. Make sure to click me too on the first post.