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Re: [ARCHIVED] [PH] Teens/Kids getting stuck in phases

I have this too with almost every playable child and teen I have. I didn't even realise I was bugged until someone said that the phases should go away on their own.

I usually play a household for around a week and then switch. Children and Teens went into phases but I didn't really think about them until I came back to playing them after a while and they were still in the phase.

I wondered if I was doing something wrong, but nothing I do seems to get them to end the phase. One of my teens has been stuck with the Distant phase for months (I play with aging off). Another has been stuck with the Picky Eater (prefers quick meals) phase ever since I've known him.

The other day, I played a new family and when the children went into phases (clingy and rebellious) I performed actions to counter them and was surprised at how quickly they went away when working normally - for the clingy child I had them play with a friend and the phase went away I think the same day (I hadn't left the family and switched to another in my rotation yet).

18 Replies

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  • simvasion's avatar
    simvasion
    Hero
    7 years ago
    I don’t play with aging on, so none of the children or teens with stuck phases have age transitioned yet. I assume the phases would disappear though upon age up.

    This bug we have is when they are still children or teens and the gameplay suggestions for removing the traits don’t work. Like for picky eater I should be able to get the parents to discuss better eating habits and it should go away. But it doesn’t.
  • crinrict's avatar
    crinrict
    Hero+
    7 years ago
    OK. Thanks. Guess I'll leave them separate for now.
  • simvasion's avatar
    simvasion
    Hero
    7 years ago
    It appears as though if a child or teen has a phase and then I switch to another household in my rotation and come back, the phase timer has expired, but the trait was not removed properly while they weren't the active household.

    Workaround:
    If I use cheats to restart the phase, then I'm able to perform actions to encourage the children/teens out of the phase naturally.
  • filipomel's avatar
    filipomel
    Seasoned Ace
    7 years ago

    Hello, here is a link to a save file of mine: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DBJWey6HN63gwrHgOgZMy7_EabLWt_lL

    The family in question is in willow creek in the top left district, the Kyran household. In the household there is a sim named Ronson Kyran, if you take a look at his traits you'll see that he is in two phases, the Picky Eater phase and the Rebellious phase. The phase that Ronson was stuck with before he was in both phases was the Picky Eater phase. Sims who are stuck in a phase lose the phase upon aging up, Christa Kyran recently aged up to young adult after being in the Picky Eater phase for most of her teen life, and no longer is in the phase. 

  • natabeartv's avatar
    natabeartv
    New Veteran
    7 years ago

    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.

  • simvasion's avatar
    simvasion
    Hero
    7 years ago

    @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).

  • Jade2018's avatar
    Jade2018
    Seasoned Rookie
    7 years ago

    @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_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).


    Do you have to have the game on PC for this cheat to work or does it work of console as well?

  • simvasion's avatar
    simvasion
    Hero
    7 years ago

    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.

  • StarryMight's avatar
    StarryMight
    6 years ago

    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! 😃

  • @SimQARobo

    Hi, I was just looking for a cheat to get my stuck kids out of "frozen" phases when I saw this.
    I would describe it the same way as @simvasion in post #9

    The save file I send you the other day (about relationships disappearing) also have this problem.

    Stinalina
  • simvasion's avatar
    simvasion
    Hero
    6 years ago

    @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.

  • @simvasion

    I agree. The problem is that the phases just don´t work anymore. They become unplayable, so your child/teen and the parent won't have the gameplay of the phases.


    A quick solution if you dont use mods, is just to remove the stuck phase with:
    traits.remove_trait childhoodphase_clingy

    - Insert whatever childhood phase you want to remove.

    I have tested this, and eventually a new phase will come. Although you loss the stuck phase, you can move on and a new will come. But you probably have to stay in the same household to experience the entire gameplay of the phase.

    Stinalina
  • PixeledReality's avatar
    PixeledReality
    New Scout
    5 years ago

    Well, for anyone interested in using a "cleaner", in-game method to fix this, you can let your child/teen Sim have an accident and die, turn them into a ghost, invite them into the household, then resurrect them fully. Apparently this resets their personality values and cleans them of any stuck childhood phase too. Not the most practical solution, but I fully recommend it if you're against the use of any form of console commands.

    Parenthood has been out of for years now, it's absolutely embarrassing that the techs have done zilch about it so far.

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