[FIXED] Random Sims as Father Winter

Product: The Sims 4
Platform: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? 1.46.18.1020 (64 Bit)
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? Seasons, Get To Work, and Parenthood
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Place a fireplace and wait for Father Winter to appear.
What happens when the bug occurs? Father Winter is a random Sim instead of Clement Frost.
What do you expect to see? Clement Frost should be Father Winter.
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Not now. I've removed them.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? Neutral/Not Sure

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Clement Frost was listed in Manage Households. I deleted the household of the other “Father Winter” (Geoff Duong) and then returned to the active household. Another random Sim was generated to appear as Father Winter. I deleted him AND Clement Frost (in case he was glitched somehow, figuring the game would just generate him again). Another Sim appeared as Father Winter, and Clement Frost did not exist in manage households. Disabling mods and CC did not fix this issue.

This problem did not occur in another save, where my Sim was on a community lot (with no fireplace) and Clement Frost appeared there. I have only encountered this issue at home with a fireplace.

SimGuruNick
6 years ago
This was supposed to be fixed in the recent patch that just came out. Maybe it was only fixed on new save games created after the patch? Are you playing an older save? Either way, could you share your save with me? Thanks so much!

EDIT (Crin): Link on how to fix your legacy saves: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-Random-Sims-as-Father-Winter/m-p/7995455#M96077

45 Replies

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simvasion
Hero
7 years ago
"Father Winter" is just an NPC job. It sounds like your Clement Frost either lost that job or auto-retired. After that, the game will generate replacement random sims to be the new Father Winter.

I haven't tested it on Father Winter, but some NPCs with service jobs such as maids, gardeners and repairmen will lose their job if you move them into a house. Even if they are unplayed. So I just leave mine alone sitting in Manage Households.

If you delete a sim, the game will not regenerate the same one again in the same save game. You'd need to make a new save game to have him generate there.
bookmaster325
Seasoned Ace
7 years ago
Father Winter "retires" in my game after every Winterfest. No deleting, or what have you...just playing the game season to season. Clement Frost always starts the "chain" in the save. Reminded me of HP (the Defense Against the Dark Arts position at Hogwarts) I understand passing the torch after a while, but it seems a bit excessive to me (and I expressed such to the Gurus via Twitter - though never received a response). It's the only NPC that has this "issue" for me, that I can recall at the moment anyway. Ahh, well. :D
I kind of chalked up this weird happening to "by design" but that's just a guess. ~shrugs~
crinrict
Hero+
7 years ago
Hi @krikkitbot

just so understand this correctly. You had a Sim appear in your house called Geoff Doung and he was dress and labeled as Father Winter ? What kinds of mods did you have in when this happened and at what point did you remove your mods ? Before of after deleting the Sims ?

Did you have mods in with the save where it worked ?
krikkitbot
7 years ago
@simvasion
So Clement Frost only appears for the first Winterfest anyway? And someone else will always take his place the next time around?

I guess I misunderstood when I read that another Father Winter would be generated. It seems this is just by design :/ Oh well, at least I know I didn’t mess things up big time by deleting him since he would’ve just been replaced by some random next year anyway.

@crinrict
I have several mods installed, including MC Command Center, Show Sim Info, Basemental Drugs, Cosmic Gender Ray, SimRealist Private Practice, and a few smaller mods. I disabled mods after deleting Clement Frost. I had all the same mods active in the other save; the only difference was a few MC settings not related to story progression.
krikkitbot
7 years ago
@simvasion
By the way, I want to accept your response as a solution, but AHQ won’t let me.
simvasion
Hero
7 years ago
@krikkitbot wrote:
@simvasion
So Clement Frost only appears for the first Winterfest anyway? And someone else will always take his place the next time around?

I guess I misunderstood when I read that another Father Winter would be generated. It seems this is just by design :/ Oh well, at least I know I didn’t mess things up big time by deleting him since he would’ve just been replaced by some random next year anyway.
I've only had one Winterfest so far, and Clement Frost appeared as Father Winter. As long as he doesn't lose his job over the next year I expect to see him again as the only Father Winter. I play with aging off, so he can't age and die and also put him in the My Households tab to 'protect' him.
The game does have built in basic story progression stuff that happens in the background without mods, for example after a certain number of weeks, NPC sims can randomly choose to quit their jobs.
crinrict
Hero+
7 years ago
@krikkitbot wrote:
@simvasion
By the way, I want to accept your response as a solution, but AHQ won’t let me.

Please hold off with that. I'm trying to find out if this is by design or not.

If the accept button doesn't' work, you can go through the three dot menu but in this case, I'm not sure if it's by design or not so just leave it as is for now.

Thanks.
crinrict
Hero+
7 years ago
Added as unsure
to7m
7 years ago
Product: The Sims 4
Platform: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? Latest
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? All except Spooky and My pet
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Play the game
What happens when the bug occurs? Game summons a new father Winter at 8pm on winter fest but doesn’t use Clement Frost that is in my households, the new father Winter did not have a household of his own, I had to move him in and out and delete him to be able to get rid of him. Tried three times same thing every time. The game is creating a new father W and not using the current one, then you cannot get rid of the new one without moving him into your own household and out again on his owns. Seriously, this is getting on my nerves now. Bug after bugs
What do you expect to see? A fixed game. ASAP.
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. Latest and GF

‌

See above.

Game is creating new Father W instead of using clement frost. Then you cannot get rid of the old one you have to invtire him over, move him in, then out and delete him.

—T
crinrict
Hero+
7 years ago
I assume Clement Frost is still in one of your households ?

There's this but they all deleted the original one: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/UNSURE-Random-Sims-as-Father-Winter/m-p/7007871