Save bug (could be related to build item bug)
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? 1.98.158.1020
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? Vampires, Snowy Escape, Romantic Garden, Outdoor Retreat, Holiday Celebration, Get Famous, Fashion Street, Eco Lifestyle, Desert Luxe, Cottage Living, Backyard Living, Cats and Dogs, City Living, Discover University, Get to Work, Get Together, Island Living, Seasons, Dine Out, Jungle Adventure, Spa Day, Cool Kitchen, Kids Room, Luxury Party, Perfect Patio, Spooky, Toddler Stuff, Vintage Glamour
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? While saving game using 'Save As' in live gameplay mode.
What happens when the bug occurs? Using the "Resume" button to attempt to load the save every time.
What do you expect to see? I expect normal gameplay without impeded progression and going backwards in time.
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Yes
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? Neutral/Not Sure
This was gonna be a long story, but I'll try to keep this to the point.
I too am one of the countless players who encountered the build item bug* - but with a twist that I think that this is triggering an issue I'm very concerned with.
From my experiments and observations since before version 1.98.158.1020 was introduced when that build item bug occurred, some clues appeared to highlight another issue that's my main concern.
I have a save bug which puts my household to a state from the last time I loaded it. However, some of the newer stuff such as new births in a certain period of time, for example will retain these sims. Because of the time travel paradox created by this problem, they lose the information as to their relations with sims. And as such, their parents would still be pregnant with them while they still exist as being birthed by them in spite of the information loss. Basically, a good way to keep duplicating sims and unintentionally expand households.
Another clue that appeared for me was the first time that this phenomenon appeared during the death of an elderly sim. Due to unpreventable circumstances, the death occurred anyway, and in the process that it produces a headstone/urn, I initially couldn't find it on the lot (their home) they died upon. Instead, imagine my surprise to my discovery that this asset actually was transferred to my own household - and not only that, duplicated because of the fact this occurred between saves.
As an emergency measure and temporary solution because of the duplication and paradox, I made my sim create a servo (might as well have introduced a new sim, and either way, no difference) for purposes of upkeep and cleanup to cull the excess I was not prepared for. Because this servo becomes a member of my household (and I saved this at that time), the next time I loaded my game from that stage, I was still rubberbanded back into time and not only repeated this issue, but the servo disappeared because of the save state. That is also in spite of the fact they still appear in the preview shot of my save. The paradox would defeat the purpose of my attempts.
I unfortunately cannot load the original point in which this problem began as I was overwriting the original saves in my haste, which naturally culls the save that was the point of origin, but I'm afraid this is moot anyway because it may have occurred without my notice at any point anyway and would continue to do so. In effect, I would assume all saves from that point on are corrupt or at risk of corruption. Even new saves.
In fact, because I use mods, I have been careful of saving through the world edit screen as that's a known issue. However, as best as I can ascertain, it is persistent by my convention of saving through the live play screen and producing a similar result as if I used the world edit screen. Therefore, I am facing a catch-22 conundrum.
I have already tried a fresh install, as well as the method of refreshing my mod's installation because it is affected by this bug. Because the build item bug is persistent anyway, it does not appear to be affected by my mod especially with reports by people having the same build item bug without mods by my observation, and I am under the suspicion that the build item bug or something affecting it is therefore affecting my save bug. Or, perhaps, the save bug is the culprit. Either way, the save problem itself would go unnoticed largely without playing for a long session enough to notice the amount of progress and time partially lost by the save behavior and the loaded save's state. In fact, no error window pops up, as it would not produce a particular code, believe it or not.
I have managed a temporary solution for my mod (and yes, even with the updated version that was all I had, the issue is still there), but as it appears that even with a new save, the problem is inherent with the base game. Since the mod I use was reactive to this problem rather than being the cause after experimention, I am less likely to conclude the mod is causing the issue (especially if I'm taking into account of the reports of the build item bug appearing without mods).
So, again, I have already tried a fresh install, so I would presume it is in effect and still persistent in version 1.98.158.1020 as it appeared since the previous version. Either it was not fixed, or a change in that time previous that was used caused the bug to appear. My save has since been corrupt enough to make me stop playing it, and I do not have any means to restore what it should have been. There was a lot of work put into it (about 3 years running, thousands of sims and I don't mind that it's about a 2 hour load time for as long as it's just for fun), which to scale with limited means to "restore" what it should have been would be a daunting task for me if I ever elect to do so. However, since I would presume the problem would occur anyway, doing so would be just as moot in this state. If it would affect a new save as well anyway, this is game-breaking and therefore unplayable.
I don't know if my theory is correct, but alas the concurrence is too much of a coincidence to dismiss. I would expect that the save bug is a major factor of both the reason the build item issue exists, or at least something within the game that is casing both issues.
*One thing I want to highlight is that the build item bug does affect new saves, and actually does occur at the first instance of visiting a lot. In one example on a new save, this was apparent as it was triggered randomly when I had the sim I was playing return to their own house lot from visiting another lot. The house itself was either largely unchanged or I added a non-mod item to it and in both circumstances, errors for both would appear with states with mods running (build item bug + mod bug) or without mods running (build item bug alone). This was also on a fresh install of the game and fresh install of the affected mods. Nothing else. Therefore it leads me to conclude there is a residual issue with the main game itself by process of elimination.
EDIT: Also, to be clear I do not use OneDrive. Everything is internal. Not on an external drive. I know how saves can be renamed and all that (a point which I only started using that method to test saves and organize to mitigate confusion - only after the fact this problem was occurring). I just know the game itself is persistent with this behavior with new/copies of the saves with the offending problem to tell me the game has an issue with saving progress properly. There is nothing else I can think of and certainly have not edited anything else prior to the problem itself - and especially unable to do so with the base game itself manually since I don't code, mod, reverse engineer, or produce games, let alone possess the skillset to even help myself in this manner. I'm stuck with a broken game for now.