Forum Discussion

queenofsprinkle's avatar
5 years ago

How can I keep my sims from being sad about their birthday?

I usually play on unlimited lifespan instead of auto-aging, but I'm doing a challenge right now that requires a normal lifespan.  I throw my sims a birthday party when it tells me to ("Celebrate [Sim Name]'s birthday by throwing a rocking Birthday Party!").  People come over, I get a gold level achievement for the event, the birthday sim blows out the candles and....doesn't age up.  Then the next day, they age up and cry all day because their birthday was forgotten.  What?!  Am I supposed to wait until the day after I'm told to throw the party? What am I doing wrong???  It's really annoying having them mope around after I JUST threw them the greatest party of all time, so I would really like to know how this mechanism works.  Thanks in advance.

(Edit to add: I should note that my current generation had twins. One aged up normally at the teen --> young adult birthday party and one did not, even though they both blew out candles. I haven't been able to throw a successful age-up party since and they are both now adults. I don't know if this is a bug or if I'm doing something wrong.  I am assuming it's not a bug until I'm told otherwise.)

7 Replies

  • Honestly that sounds like a bug. Blow out candles and make a wish are both actions that should always age up the Sim doing them, as far as I know. When you hover over the option, does it give you the warning for it? Something like "This will age up your Sim"?

    It can be difficult to actually get to the blowing out candles stage - you need a new, uncut cake, and it needs to be placed exactly in the center of a table or counter before Sims will put candles on it. Sounds simple, but becomes problematic when depending on a caterer who keeps putting things down on the edge of the table or just making taco casseroles. And if you make the cake ahead of time, you need to guard it to make sure none of your Sims take a piece. And then the birthday Sim needs to actually get to it, and of course all the guests will be standing in the way... But once the candles are blown out? I've never had a problem. It should work even without the party.

  • PugLove888's avatar
    PugLove888
    Hero (Retired)
    5 years ago

    @queenofsprinkles , are you playing on a console or on a PC or Mac?  If you are playing on a PC or Mac, do you play with any Mods or Custom Content (CC)?  🤔

  • Yes, I am getting the warning message, the candles are on the cake, it's uneaten/uncut and I moved it to the center of the table.

  • Yes, of course.  I had to turn off mods because of the update.  I am still having the same intermittent problem with aging up and I can't figure out why.  Out of this generation, the male sibling was unable to age up on his toddler --> child birthday while the female sibling aged up a few days later to the same life stage with no issues.  Put the (freshly baked) cake in the same place and everything.

    He was sad all day even though he had a party.  She wasn't because she aged up with the cake.

  • PipMenace's avatar
    PipMenace
    Hero
    5 years ago

    Not sure what's going on then - maybe try to repair the game and/or delete the cache? If that still doesn't work, I'd post in the bug thread to see if anyone else is having the same issue.