Had to completely replace a child in my family (save to gallery and then readd with family relationships) because they were stuck with the bear phase and it wasn't ending. Cheats to remove weren't working, and I didn't have any options on parents to discuss it with her. She now has a clingy phase and it isn't ending either.
I'm doing a rotational play with aging off.
@natabeartv wrote:Had to completely replace a child in my family (save to gallery and then readd with family relationships) because they were stuck with the bear phase and it wasn't ending. Cheats to remove weren't working, and I didn't have any options on parents to discuss it with her. She now has a clingy phase and it isn't ending either.
I'm doing a rotational play with aging off.
That's a bit extreme, so I'm going to share the workaround I use (which safely removes the phase without negatively affecting the children).
First save the game or make a backup just in case something goes wrong and you need to revert.
1. You need TwistedMexi's cheat fix mod which restores cheats removed by the Seasons patch, specifically, the add buff cheat. Google for TwistedMexi All Cheats Fix
2. open the cheat console and activate testingcheats on
3. get the ID of your child or teen sim with sims.get_sim_id_by_name firstname lastname replacing the firstname and lastname with the name of the sim
- if entered correctly it should say something like "your sim's id is 12345678"
4. switch control to the child sim while you enter the cheat or at least make sure they are on the active lot with you
5. use the add buff cheat to reapply the phase that is stuck, which makes it restart again: sims.add_buff nameofphase yourchildsID
- depending on the phase, use either:
buff_ChildhoodPhase_Bear
buff_ChildhoodPhase_Clingy
buff_ChildhoodPhase_Distant
buff_ChildhoodPhase_Loud
buff_ChildhoodPhase_MeanStreak
buff_ChildhoodPhase_Rebellious
So the cheat would look something like sims.add_buff buff_ChildhoodPhase_Clingy 12345678
(Picky Eater is more complex because there are five different versions of it (PickyEater_B, PickyEater_C, etc). I think you need to add the exact same version they have stuck, but I don't think there's a way to tell which one they have unless you use something like Itasan2's show sim info mod. I'd recommend getting that mod, finding out which exact phase they have and then using buff_ChildhoodPhase_PickyEater_A or B or C or D or E depending on which one it is.)
You should then see the notification pop up saying that your child has entered that phase, along with the phase music sting. This should mean that the phase has been refreshed and is active - meaning your parent sims can now use "Ask About Phase" to find out what they need to do to reduce it
In cases like Bear phase, you should now be able to click on the child and spin into bear form without needing to make an outfit in CAS, and parents should be able to put on a bear costume by using the interaction under "Parenting".
You should then stay playing this family until the phase goes away - it should only take a couple of days before it expires naturally or faster if you use parenting to counter the phase e.g. wearing a bear suit as a parent, encouraging better eating habits, influencing quiet activities, having your clingy child make friends with other children etc.
I find this to be the best workaround for me. Having the game remove the phase naturally means that it also removes any hidden stuff on the character associated with the phase that the remove trait cheat might not clear (e.g. the sadness from not wearing a bear costume even after removing the trait).
@simvasion wrote:That's a bit extreme, so I'm going to share the workaround I use (which safely removes the phase without negatively affecting the children).
First save the game or make a backup just in case something goes wrong and you need to revert.
1. You need TwistedMexi's cheat fix mod which restores cheats removed by the Seasons patch, specifically, the add buff cheat. Google for TwistedMexi All Cheats Fix
2. open the cheat console and activate testingcheats on
3. get the ID of your child or teen sim with sims.get_sim_id_by_name firstname lastname replacing the firstname and lastname with the name of the sim
- if entered correctly it should say something like "your sim's id is 12345678"
4. switch control to the child sim while you enter the cheat or at least make sure they are on the active lot with you
5. use the add buff cheat to reapply the phase that is stuck, which makes it restart again: sims.add_buff nameofphase yourchildsID
- depending on the phase, use either:
buff_ChildhoodPhase_Bearbuff_ChildhoodPhase_Clingy
buff_ChildhoodPhase_Distant
buff_ChildhoodPhase_Loud
buff_ChildhoodPhase_MeanStreak
buff_ChildhoodPhase_Rebellious
So the cheat would look something like sims.add_buff buff_ChildhoodPhase_Clingy 12345678
(Picky Eater is more complex because there are five different versions of it (PickyEater_B, PickyEater_C, etc). I think you need to add the exact same version they have stuck, but I don't think there's a way to tell which one they have unless you use something like Itasan2's show sim info mod. I'd recommend getting that mod, finding out which exact phase they have and then using buff_ChildhoodPhase_PickyEater_A or B or C or D or E depending on which one it is.)You should then see the notification pop up saying that your child has entered that phase, along with the phase music sting. This should mean that the phase has been refreshed and is active - meaning your parent sims can now use "Ask About Phase" to find out what they need to do to reduce it
In cases like Bear phase, you should now be able to click on the child and spin into bear form without needing to make an outfit in CAS, and parents should be able to put on a bear costume by using the interaction under "Parenting".
You should then stay playing this family until the phase goes away - it should only take a couple of days before it expires naturally or faster if you use parenting to counter the phase e.g. wearing a bear suit as a parent, encouraging better eating habits, influencing quiet activities, having your clingy child make friends with other children etc.
I find this to be the best workaround for me. Having the game remove the phase naturally means that it also removes any hidden stuff on the character associated with the phase that the remove trait cheat might not clear (e.g. the sadness from not wearing a bear costume even after removing the trait).
Do you have to have the game on PC for this cheat to work or does it work of console as well?
Yes, it needs to be on PC or Mac because it relies on a cheat restoration mod from TwistedMexi and script mods turned on to work - it won't work on consoles (those cheats were disabled from the base game with the release of Seasons, but fortunately for PC owners, modders can reenable them).
If you're having trouble entering the ID (like a single mistake typo will make the entire cheat fail), you don't need the ID number if you have the child directly selected and being the active sim.
There's also no line breaks - all the cheat is on a single line with spaces between the three sections.
EA StaffHi everyone!
So, we are trying to trigger this issue to no avail. We managed to see the 2 phases in the save, but it went away after aging up.
So, if anyone still has a save with this issue, can you please share the whole save file folder with us, and give us some info about the household?
Thank you very much for the help!
I just got hit with this bug loading a family of three vampires (a guy and his younger sisters), and one of the sisters had a broken Distant phase.
@simvasion 's solution worked! 😃
@SimGuruIcarus wrote:Hi everyone!
So, we are trying to trigger this issue to no avail. We managed to see the 2 phases in the save, but it went away after aging up.
It also sounds like the SimGurus are trying to reproduce the wrong thing. I play with aging permanently turned off. This isn’t about the phases not going away when they age up. It’s about the phase getting stuck while they are still in the child or teen life stage.
The phase buffs all have a timer that lasts for a couple of days, which means phases should last only a couple of days max – not for all of their child or teen lives.
Also, the parenting options to remove the phase stop working when the phase buff expires while the family is not being played as they active household (while you are off playing different households in your play rotation). When you return and the buff is gone, but the traits are still on, for example with bear phase the child will still want to wear their bear suit, but parents have no option to wear a suit when clicking on their child (which they normally have while the buff is active).
None of this sounds like intended gameplay by design.
The phase and phase buff need to either pause expiry timer while the family isn’t active and then resume when you return to playing that house, or the phase needs to be properly removed even while sims are off-screen and not currently the active household.
