Forum Discussion

Gednaa's avatar
Gednaa
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
Solved

Can't plant anything in any season.

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:Mac
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? 1.70.84.1220
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? Everything except Eco Lifestyle, Cool Kitchen, Spooky Stuff, Movie hangout, Fitness, Toddler, Laundry Day, My first Pet, Tiny Living and Paranormal.
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Sorry not a clue.
What happens when the bug occurs? I can't plant anything straight into the soil, just planter boxes.
What do you expect to see? I expect to be able to plant straight into the ground as this takes up less space than huge planter boxes and it's easier for my sims to harvest as they can't reach the back of planters unless I take up more space and move them apart/forward
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 

โ€Œ

Plants when put on the ground are unclickable so can't be planted.  All I can do with them is drag them back to the inventory.  I was looking forward to a nice batch of death flowers this winter, but couldn't pant last summer  (sims time!). It's now the next summer in the sims and still I can't plant.  I don't want to use planters, they take up too much space, and I feel I should be able to plant into the ground as I always used to.  This started happening a couple of weeks ago, maybe due to the paranormal patch???  Tested without mods, still the same.  My existing plants are fine, I just want to plant more.   I've even done a reinstall and removed Eco Lifestyle, (it was eating up too much RAM) but the problem was occurring before I installed Eco anyway.  Was really hoping the reinstall would fix things.  Thank you if you can help with my problem.  I love my garden!

  • Eureka!  It was the house I was playing.  I had to re-download from my library to the first version of it, as subsequent ones that I'd built extra rooms on were all corrupt!  So I'm very happy but now have a lot of building to do to get the Lot back as my sims like it.  Boy I'm glad I thought to try that!  Thanks for the help with this and I'm now about to mark this as solved!  Happy days!

    I do not work For EA, but I do like to help people if I can

    Keep on simming and have fun!

    Helping to keep The Sims Sim-ple.

    Simandsimandsim

10 Replies

  • @Gednaa Well, there are a number of restrictions to planting. Like, the weather can't be very cold, (ground is frozen) you can't plant anywhere except your sim's lot, and only certain plants. Some plants can't be planted at all.

    Try this. Leave your lot and harvest something from the neighborhood nearby. Then take that back to your lot and plant it there. Make sure it's not cold at all.
  • Gednaa's avatar
    Gednaa
    Seasoned Ace
    5 years ago
    @Psychotps Thanks again, you've been so helpful in my other thread! I've never had a problem like this before and I am on my lot with pants that I've never hand a problem with before. From very basic to Death Flowers and money trees. I've tried in all different seasons, summer is happening at the moment. just no option to click on the plants at all. I did a reinstall of the whole game and still the problem persists. I'll try harvesting from somewhere else and let you know what happens. Thanks, you're so kind to help me this much today and we got the other one sort of solved. I guess you'll read that soon! Cheers for now. Bed time here in the UK. Waaaay past my bedtime!
  • Psychotps's avatar
    Psychotps
    Seasoned Ace
    5 years ago
    @Gednaa Lol, didn't realize that was you, the acting career one. I've played Sims since it was released, this is what... 18 years now? Thousands of plays and saves over the years. Done practically everything in the game at one point or another. Even mod making.

    I know the plants will go bonkers if you leave them too long without tending to them. This is the main reason they tend to revert to dirt piles, ignoring them. I can't leave them alone for more than a day before they start messing up. I was just playing this morning an off-the-grid house in Sulani, got caught up in something else, forgot my plants and they all reverted. Had to cheat them back to normal.

    Never had a problem with not being able to plant, unless it was too cold and I forgot to check the temp. "What... is it STILL cold?" Then I have to pick them back up and wait until the ground thaws...

    I know a lot of players tend to have these huge gardens for some reason. Thing is, large gardens tend to be a lot of work and can sometimes go days before harvesting... thus the plants rebel and start acting weird.

    I have created mods that change how gardening works, but nothing that would fix that. Mainly evolution rates, growth rates, spawn sizes, and growing in all seasons. Never figured out the issue rising from ignoring plants. Harvesting/tending has never been much of an issue for me as I've never had more than a dozen plants. Never saw the need for more.

    I would use the same suggestion in your other thread. Try it on a new save.

    Also, remember to remove the cache files. That can fix a number of issues. I remove the cache files all the time and it fixes a lot of problems.

    Never had to re-install the game once.

    Actually that's not true. I removed the game back in June 2018 after seasons came out. Seasons upset me so much when they completely destroyed how gardening worked, I removed the entire game and re-installed without seasons. Ended up re-installing it after I got into modding and fixed gardening myself.
  • Gednaa's avatar
    Gednaa
    Seasoned Ace
    5 years ago

    Haha!  Yeah, that was me with the dodgy acting career!  :D. Wow!  Thank for that great insight and especially as you've been playing for such a long time and now you can mod!  Brilliant!  I started playing after Seasons, so don't know what it was like before.  I noticed that a mod I have can't evolve the plants at the moment.  But having removed all mods and playing again and a reinstall, I'm still scratching my head.  Maybe I should downsize my garden.  I do have a lot of plants!  I love the gardening aspect of The Sims, and I really keep a close eye on everything all the time.  After all I have an 8 sim household! Nothing escapes my beady eye.  Yes, I think I'll try downsizing, and I'll go and get some different plants From Elsewhere.  Think I'll have to go back to Sulani as I'm in Del Sol so not much to get.  The plants in del sol don't seem to be intractable, you can only view them, whereas some in Sulani can be harvested.  Keeps us on our toes all this, doesn't it! Oh, and if all that doesn't work, I'll do a new save without mods like you kindly advise.  It's so nice to have someone to talk to about the sims, BTW.  I don't know many people who play.  That's why I come to this forum to chat all things Sims!  I've been playing for coming up to a year.  Something to do during Lockdown!  I love the TV show Lost, so all my sims are actors or characters from the show!  LOL. We started out in Sulani as plane crash survivors, now we're all Global Celebrities in Del Sol!  Rags to riches.  Started with one sim, he got married and had tons of kids, most died laughing (I have mods now!) hence Daniel Faraday is a baby making machine in my game!  Yes, he's gay in my game - too geeky for women, they were bore by him. Their loss!  If you know the show he found his Constant.  If you haven't watched, it's a great show.  Nice to meet you @Psychotps .  Thank for all the help and listening to me nattering away!  Back later to let you know how the garden is coming along.  ๐Ÿ™‚. 

  • Psychotps's avatar
    Psychotps
    Seasoned Ace
    5 years ago

    @GednaaThe biggest reason you want to try it in a new save is to see if its a problem related with your save. I've noticed playing a single save for a long time will cause it to do very weird stuff. Try it on a new save, even for a short time. Just to see if it works on a new game.

    If it fails on a brand-new save, then it must either be a problem with a mod or a glitch in the game. If it works on a new game, it CAN'T be a mod or a game bug.

    Since you seem like the kind of person who doesn't mind experimenting... Try it both ways. Leave mods in, try a new game and see if planting works. If Not, remove the mods and try another new game. It will help you narrow down the cause. If it works with mods on a new game, then you know there's a problem with your good save. Then you can concentrate on that. Load up your good save and try a different household/house/town. If it works there, then it's not a problem with your WHOLE save, just that one house... analysis is your friend.

    And clear the cache files, I've said it before, but really... that fixes a lot of strange stuff in the game. There's currently a glitch with fences where if you hover a fence gate over the fence too much, the fence will disappear. (I have a Youtube video demonstrating it) When this happens it breaks MANY lots across the game. Fences become invisible across the game. The only thing that fixes it is clearing cache files.

    Oh, and don't worry if your sims don't always get awards at the award shows. It's a logistical bug in the game. The longer you play a single save, the more famous people you get. The more famous people there are, the less likely you will get an award. The award show only lasts for 4 hours after all. There are ways you can increase your chances... Use a mod like MCCC. If a sim wins an award, use MCCC to make them leave the lot. The host will immediately skip to the next winner and you don't have to wait for them to finish their speech.

    Wow... that sounds like a good idea for a mod... Instead of 7pm to 11pm, make it like 4pm to midnight... increased chances of winning... Hmmm...

    Lol. Pretty much my entire world is gay. I use MCCC to change marriage and preg rules. Women only marry women, men only marry men. Same sex pregs are enabled. Laff. It's fun. Bella Goth has spontaneously married Lily Feng on quite a number of my saves for some reason. It's very interesting how some townies just gravitate to each other. I'll make existing couples (Bella and Mortimer) gay and they immediately separate. But some couples like Eliza and Bob Pancakes NEVER separate, no matter what. It's very weird. I guess its a testament to how strong their relationship is.

  • Gednaa's avatar
    Gednaa
    Seasoned Ace
    5 years ago
    @Psychotps Firstly, I have to say how brilliant your knowledge of the game is and secondly, thank you so much for sparing me so much time. I will move my save folder to my desktop, start a new game and see if I can plant. I got Daniel to travel to Sulani, but typically there was nothing to harvest, only take a cutting from. My cache file is totally empty, which seems weird...

    Oh! I didn't know you could do that with MCC, make a sim leave the lot. Actually, now I think about it I might have noticed it somewhere along the line, but didn't think I had need of it. Another naughty thing I did was change the bouncer door requirements so only 5 star celebrities can get into the awards. Bye Bye, Thorne Bailey, Octavia Moon (now Bailey in my game) Judith Freaking Ward! (Did you know she had a middle name ๐Ÿ˜‰ ) so more chance for us to win... or so I thought. Their names still get read out but they can't get in to accept! Ha! Ha!

    I love what you've done with the Pancakes and Goths. Just when I first started playing, Daniel made friends with Eliza Pancakes and went to her birthday party. Next day he got a text saying she'd died and he was bereft. This is all before he got famous and I knew nothing of mods, so he was in a hell of a state. He's also peed himself numerous times from those early days and repelled a woman by being covered in a cloud of green! Lol. Those early days, last year were hard but also very funny!
    So... back on topic, I'll do that new save and see what happens. See you later!
  • Psychotps's avatar
    Psychotps
    Seasoned Ace
    5 years ago
    @Gednaa Well, plants take time before they spawn. Neighborhood plants always spawn within a few days tho. (Assuming they are in season, but then I DID make a mod that makes all plants always in season...)

    Also remember, plants in public areas (all areas for that matter) only spawn at 5am. So, unless you're on the lot at that time, it'll be hard to harvest if your house is not native to that 'hood. Just travel to a park or business in that hood and stay there the day. Give the plants time to grow and spawn. If they haven't grown yet, it may take a while. Do that for a few days and they should grow.

    Unfortunately that's a core bug in the game and my mods can't fix that. EA needs to revamp the core of how gardening works. There's too many bugs in the current system.

    Well, changing the lot for only 5 stars will help when your sim is 5 stars, but not when they're less than that. I'll see if I can make that mod I mentioned. 4pm to 12am award shows. See how it works.

    Yea, relationships are my forte. Been messing with that since Sims 1. It's very interesting how certain sims relationships work. Like Nancy Landgraab. Whether I make her gay or not, she'll ALWAYS stay with Malcom until he dies and then gravitate towards Clara Bjergsen. It's like she married for power and wants to stick it out until she's free to choose for herself.
  • Gednaa's avatar
    Gednaa
    Seasoned Ace
    5 years ago
    @Psychotps Good luck with the mod. I wish I knew how to make those. I love all things tech, so I'll have a look on google. That's interesting... I had no idea plants spawn at 5am! Thanks for this info. My sims are always out somewhere and rarely get the chance to harvest! Sometimes they'll stay out clubbing for a couple of days. I even put a video station at the discotheque so they could record their videos when called without having to go home! Then they just go back to dancing!

    Relationships... My 2 favourite and first sims have been together forever, but before mods one was straying. He's obviously bi-sexual as he went awol and I found him at Brindleton with Kate Austen (from Lost). I deleted her! Then their came a mod to confess to cheating, so I got him to confess to Daniel and he forgave him but was pretty upset for a while. Now they're blissed out thanks to cheat codes for the sentiments! Otherwise, these two would not be together. Also straight after their wedding, one of them died of hysteria, so I had to go back on a save, get them married again and not let him take a bubble bath after the wedding. That's not what I think is in your first thoughts when you just got wed, but he wanted to, so I stopped him. Now they're all immortal. Can laugh all they like, get as angry as they like for videos. There are so many aspects to this game, I never get bored! Anyway I'll have a look around Del Sol for some plants to harvest on a public lot. Can't wait to see if it works!
  • Gednaa's avatar
    Gednaa
    Seasoned Ace
    5 years ago
    @Psychotps The Thot Plickens... I started a new game I removed all mods first, added them one by one and every one was fine. The sim could plant things. Today, I went back in loaded up my usual game, still couldn't plant on my lot, so travelled to Sulani and could plant there! Then went back to del sol, got onto our neighbour's lot and found we could plant there. So there's something about my lot, but what? It was fine till a few weeks ago. I bulldozed it and downloaded it again, but still no planting. Don't really want to lose the house, but I might now try another house from the gallery and see if I can plant there. Sheesh!
  • Gednaa's avatar
    Gednaa
    Seasoned Ace
    5 years ago

    Eureka!  It was the house I was playing.  I had to re-download from my library to the first version of it, as subsequent ones that I'd built extra rooms on were all corrupt!  So I'm very happy but now have a lot of building to do to get the Lot back as my sims like it.  Boy I'm glad I thought to try that!  Thanks for the help with this and I'm now about to mark this as solved!  Happy days!

    I do not work For EA, but I do like to help people if I can

    Keep on simming and have fun!

    Helping to keep The Sims Sim-ple.

    Simandsimandsim