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SimGuruNick's avatar
SimGuruNick
Icon for EA Staff (Retired) rankEA Staff (Retired)
7 years ago

Re: [ARCHIVED] Quality of plants not/very slowly progressing/ No evolve

I'm not sure this is necessarily a bug, I think it might just be part of the new gardening design. Evolutions have slowed down, as it's now an end-game long-term goal. The Evolve commodity starts at around 50, and evolution is available at 100. Fertilize gives a solid amount of evolve commodity, depending on the quality of fertilizer but it's around 8. So you need to fertilize a plant about 7 times before it's ready to evolve. There are other factors that can affect the evolution rate as well, such as sheltering the plant. Sheltered plants have the benefit of being protected from the seasons but the evolution rate is much slower. Bluebells, for example, evolve 4x slower when sheltered than when not.

I will look into filing an issue regarding the Lessons not explaining all of this thoroughly enough. But if, after reading all of this, you believe that your game is still bugged and your plants just aren't evolving period, I would appreciate a save file to help us investigate. You can find more info for sending me your save in the following link, thanks much! https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/INFORMATION-How-to-Send-User-Files-to-The-Sims-4-Team/m-p/6065302

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  • DizzyDee-K's avatar
    DizzyDee-K
    Seasoned Ace
    7 years ago

    @SimGuruNick wrote:

    I'm not sure this is necessarily a bug, I think it might just be part of the new gardening design. Evolutions have slowed down, as it's now an end-game long-term goal. The Evolve commodity starts at around 50, and evolution is available at 100. Fertilize gives a solid amount of evolve commodity, depending on the quality of fertilizer but it's around 8. So you need to fertilize a plant about 7 times before it's ready to evolve. There are other factors that can affect the evolution rate as well, such as sheltering the plant. Sheltered plants have the benefit of being protected from the seasons but the evolution rate is much slower. Bluebells, for example, evolve 4x slower when sheltered than when not.

    I will look into filing an issue regarding the Lessons not explaining all of this thoroughly enough. But if, after reading all of this, you believe that your game is still bugged and your plants just aren't evolving period, I would appreciate a save file to help us investigate. You can find more info for sending me your save in the following link, thanks much! https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/INFORMATION-How-to-Send-User-Files-to-The-Sims-4-Team/m-p/6065302


    I'm happy that gardening has been given so much attention, But, what about players who play with more than one household? Or, players who rotate between many household? I don't think the devs have taken rotational players into account. As things stand I would need to play exclusively with my gardening household in order to make any progress on a garden throughout the cycle of seasons. 

    I play each of my household for one sim week. I have at least two household in each world. But, only three household have gardens. Sorting out the gardens has become a nightmare. Not because of the seasons, but because the underlying mechanics are so unfriendly to rotational play. Even switching to two weeks per gardening household won't really help.

    I had to play my gardening Sim Spring to Spring plus Summer and Fall  before getting 7 Apples, 2 Cherries and a Pomegranate from my spliced Apple/Cherry/Pomegranate tree. And this was playing exclusively with that household. This was with a pre-patch, per-Seasons garden. Maybe it needed that long to sync up, but even so that's a bit much to expect of us.

    Do I think this is a bug? No. I think this is the result of not thinking something all the way through. 

    If a plant needs to be fertilized SEVEN times before it evolves and a Season lasts seven days and there are five levels of quality and a plant doesn't need fertilizing every day and sheltered plants take longer to evolve, how long will it take a plant (plus they all grow a different rates) to reach the "excellent" quality?

    😕

  • Do bees affects the evolution of plants? Will plants quality improve if we often send the hive to fertilize them? Or do bees affect the volume of the harvest?

  • scoed's avatar
    scoed
    7 years ago

    @SimGuruNick wrote:

    I will look into filing an issue regarding the Lessons not explaining all of this thoroughly enough. 


    Please do this. I spent hours trying to debug deliberate nerfs thinking they are bugs. I repaired my game multiple times. I deleted cache files as they are known to cause issues. I did a factory reset. I deleted saves and started over. I spent time fruitlessly looking for answers online, just to find out these bugs are in fact deliberate nerfs you utterly failed to communicate in any manor until well after they go live and people desperately report them as bugs looking for answers get to critical mass? That is no way to communicate to paying customers  about major game changing nerfs. Sometimes nerfs are needed, I get that but when they are communication is key. I am more upset about the utter lack of communication until now than I am about the changes. What is the point of having a patch notes if they lack most if not all the important changes in said patch. I am not happy.

  • Ancaryvan's avatar
    Ancaryvan
    Seasoned Ace
    7 years ago

    So in other words, Fertilizer is a MUST? We simply CANNOT let plants to grow naturally in our garden? Watering and weeding plants simply won't help increase the bar line? The only thing I do is put Great Soil Trait on the lot. Also, no. I do not own the Season Expansion Pack

  • @Ancaryvan Mine have been growing and evolving without me fertilizing them even once, so I don‘t believe it‘s a must. The whole process has just been slowed down and I think fertilizing just speeds things up a bit. 

  • dlcalbaugh's avatar
    dlcalbaugh
    6 years ago

    I am having so many problems with gardening. The plants were progressing nicely for a little while, but not to the point of all of them needing to be evolved. I saved a good amount of money and upgraded my house thinking I could rely on my plants to make the money back. With the growth cycle being so slow I will never get that money back in time to pay my bills for my household. This super slow cycle makes gardening more of a hassle than a fun thing to do in the game. EA, Sims team, please correct this or change it so I can enjoy gardening again.

  • Psychotps's avatar
    Psychotps
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago

    All plants are evolving, they are just VERY slow if you don't use certain methods. Say for example, if you grow strawberries and use the strawberries to fertilize, it'll take a LONG time to evolve.

    Certain things can make them evolve faster, using Fish as fertilizer works better than say using Strawberries, daisies, or snapdragons as fertilizer.

    The BEST fertilizer is Grow Fruit. Which you can STILL purchase from the automated supply vendor in Granite Falls. Just go on vacation to Granite Falls for a day (or four and enjoy the scenery) buy a single grow fruit, take it home and grow the Grow-Fruit tree. It will spawn in ALL seasons so you can safely put it outdoors.  Pick the fruit and use them as fertilizer.

    You can also put down Burtie’s Bee Box nearby. It has a range of a 10x10 grid with the bee box at the center and will fertilize ALL plants within range. The Bee box is great because it STACKS with your regular fertilizer. Between the grow fruit and the bee box, your plants will evolve a LOT faster. However, you will need to Bond with the bees twice a day and periodically Apply Mite Treatments to keep them calm in order for them to keep fertilizing. But there's also the added bonus of harvesting the Honey. You can sell it once every few days for cash and keep some on you to help stave off Freezing to death or Burning to death in the cold/heat.

    Plus there is the lot trait "Great Soil" and the aspiration reward store trait "Super Green Thumb" which will both stack with the rest to further increase your plants' growth and evolution rates.

    I tried using all four methods once, I haven't use them all together since because it made my plants evolve WAY too fast.

  • yuk75's avatar
    yuk75
    6 years ago

    Some of mine have only evolved once even with a gardener there daily they've been through my whole sims life and never gone past nice some of them. The lot has the good soil trait I thought that would help but it's not.

  • Psychotps's avatar
    Psychotps
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago
    @yuk75 That's strange. Mine evolve real fast. I never fertilize any more. The bee-box does an incredible job fertilizing. Just need to deal with the box once a day. Plus you get honey out of it.

    In order for them to evolve, they need to be fertilized. Either use the bee box or fertilize it manually.

    With the new tiny lot trait and the bee box, my plants evolve EVERY DAY. It's way too fast. That's not even using fertilizer. I never use it any more.
  • Sid1701d9's avatar
    Sid1701d9
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago

    Actually I haven't had a problem with evolving plants.  You just go to find the right fertilizer.  If you can find grow fruit and plant it, I believe it is available in OD retweet to buy.  That is the best fertilizer and its special effect allows to plant to go to one level.  I hope the update didn't change it, but I haven't tried it after the update. 

  • Psychotps's avatar
    Psychotps
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago
    @Sid1701d9 I used to use Growfruit before the updates that increased the evolve rates. You can get them from the vendor stand in Granite Falls. AFAIK It's the only place to get them. Ever since the updates, Growfruit, or any fertilizer is useless.

    I have a size 2 tiny lot that I usually start new sims in, before I work them up to purchase a better house. I put down a bee box and in about a week they always have perfect plants.

    I'm thinking about removing the "tiny lot" from the house, the gardening is more than a little OP there.
  • yuk75's avatar
    yuk75
    6 years ago

    Since you said this I've been trying the bees. It's been almost 30 sim days and my roses which get bee action are still stuck about 10 pixels shy of leveling up from excellent. Most of the plants are not budging at all, I had one plant evolve since the bees and they pretty much go several times a day. I think this is a real bug I don't know why some of us have it and some don't they do not improve at all.

    Mine are sheltered if that makes a difference.

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