Patch affects groups

"luthienrising;15377229" wrote:

"alanmichael1;15377189" wrote:

"luthienrising;15377172" wrote:

"LeGardePourpre;15377143" wrote:
@BabySquare

SimGuruNick, I think it's the Engagement Team... who made this patch.

Pretty sure patches aren't ever only made by one team. Anything that involves breakage would be investigated by QA (Quality Assurance), which is the department in charge of fixing broken stuff. (My husband is a QA guy.)

However I wonder how terrible and obvious bugs like this one (or the immortal nanny) can be overlooked. I'm not even a passionate user of the club system and noticed the mess after one minute.

I have the impression that the devs only check their fixes in the base game and have no time to test the interference with other packs. This makes many Sims packs unplayable after a short time - think for example of TS3 Ambitions where they never managed to fix the firefighter career.

The game is supercomplex (my husband once said he'd want at least a 100% raise to manage QA on this product, from what he'd seen of it). I suspect that the system of what to check is extensive and complicated, but that doesn't mean it's guaranteed 100% complete. QA is a human-run process: there's no wand you can wave to ensure that you don't miss something in testing. We don't see stuff this game-breaking and universal very often, considering how often we get updates and how complex the game is - I've been generally impressed, tbh. I would imagine from the nature of the issue that this one will be easy to isolate; hopefully it'll be a quick development fix as well, or at least a quick bandaid to hide the issue on users' end.

Of course we are all humans - but TS is not some obscure niche, it's the most important PC game on the market. It's playing in the Mercedes league of entertainment. Now imagine the real Mercedes would test their cars with such care ...

"alanmichael1;15377254" wrote:

"luthienrising;15377229" wrote:

"alanmichael1;15377189" wrote:

"luthienrising;15377172" wrote:

"LeGardePourpre;15377143" wrote:
@BabySquare

SimGuruNick, I think it's the Engagement Team... who made this patch.

Pretty sure patches aren't ever only made by one team. Anything that involves breakage would be investigated by QA (Quality Assurance), which is the department in charge of fixing broken stuff. (My husband is a QA guy.)

However I wonder how terrible and obvious bugs like this one (or the immortal nanny) can be overlooked. I'm not even a passionate user of the club system and noticed the mess after one minute.

I have the impression that the devs only check their fixes in the base game and have no time to test the interference with other packs. This makes many Sims packs unplayable after a short time - think for example of TS3 Ambitions where they never managed to fix the firefighter career.

The game is supercomplex (my husband once said he'd want at least a 100% raise to manage QA on this product, from what he'd seen of it). I suspect that the system of what to check is extensive and complicated, but that doesn't mean it's guaranteed 100% complete. QA is a human-run process: there's no wand you can wave to ensure that you don't miss something in testing. We don't see stuff this game-breaking and universal very often, considering how often we get updates and how complex the game is - I've been generally impressed, tbh. I would imagine from the nature of the issue that this one will be easy to isolate; hopefully it'll be a quick development fix as well, or at least a quick bandaid to hide the issue on users' end.

Of course we are all humans - but TS is not some obscure niche, it's the most important PC game on the market. It's playing in the Mercedes league of entertainment. Now imagine the real Mercedes would test their cars with such care ...

They bring out a new model of washer bottle that accidentally ejects the driver?

"BabySquare;15377206" wrote:

"Mendota;15377191" wrote:

"legolizeit;15377122" wrote:

"CarpeNoctemSims;15377095" wrote:

Thank you for the concern. The save that got messed up is a copy. I never put my only version of the save into the game for cases like this. Once it's fixed, I can just delete the TS4 folder and start over with a copy of the untouched save.

I've been playing Sims games for a decade and I still haven't learned my lesson. At least someone has!

Make sure to keep auto update off. Than you can go offline in Origin and continue to play that way.

Just turned off automatic game update. Is that what you're referring to?

Yes, Then you can continue to play the non updated game until things are sorted out.

"Mendota;15377267" wrote:

"BabySquare;15377206" wrote:

"Mendota;15377191" wrote:

"legolizeit;15377122" wrote:

"CarpeNoctemSims;15377095" wrote:

Thank you for the concern. The save that got messed up is a copy. I never put my only version of the save into the game for cases like this. Once it's fixed, I can just delete the TS4 folder and start over with a copy of the untouched save.

I've been playing Sims games for a decade and I still haven't learned my lesson. At least someone has!

Make sure to keep auto update off. Than you can go offline in Origin and continue to play that way.

Just turned off automatic game update. Is that what you're referring to?

Yes, Then you can continue to play the non updated game until things are sorted out.

Cool! that's what I did, thanks! :)

"crinrict;15377208" wrote:

"CarpeNoctemSims;15376941" wrote:
It's true.....

My clubs are broken. This is in a brand new TS4 folder and after a game repair (I always do this with every new patch). The save is CC/Mod free. It's a base save I created prior and all my clubs are messed up.

https://68.media.tumblr.com/2e9e180f1188ca6f37ded4a46dccda4b/tumblr_inline_ohix2ncQwz1upjkmc_540.png

@CarpeNoctemSims Is it ok when I use this pic for a blog post in my blog ?

I don't mind.

"luthienrising;15377233" wrote:

"BabySquare;15377206" wrote:

"Mendota;15377191" wrote:

"legolizeit;15377122" wrote:

"CarpeNoctemSims;15377095" wrote:

Thank you for the concern. The save that got messed up is a copy. I never put my only version of the save into the game for cases like this. Once it's fixed, I can just delete the TS4 folder and start over with a copy of the untouched save.

I've been playing Sims games for a decade and I still haven't learned my lesson. At least someone has!

Make sure to keep auto update off. Than you can go offline in Origin and continue to play that way.

Just turned off automatic game update. Is that what you're referring to?

That's half of it. If you also play connected to the internet, Origin will still know there's meant to be an update and will insist you update before you can play. Turning off auto-update seems intended only to make it so you can postpone updating if, say, you need to do that overnight not during peak hours.

Even though Origin tries to make you believe that you have to update in order to play. That is not entirely true. The wording is poor, probably on purpose. If you turn off updates and then go off line, you can continue to play. I should have mentioned that you must go off line as well.

"LeGardePourpre;15377271" wrote:
@BabySquare But Origin must be in Offline mode if you want to play without updating.

Thanks! I wasn't sure I could completely trust it in online mode.

Couple of comments without quoting everybody:

Not updating - the only way to avoid this is to be sure you disconnect your computer from the internet before launching Origin (simple toggling of the wifi button to airplane mode on a laptop). The second it sees there is a TS4 update, you are forced to update or cannot play it.

QA and TS4 - I'll be the first to shake an angry fist at EA and I have many times; however, it's nearly impossible for them to be able to foresee everything that can happen. There are so many variables at play here. Things like the computer, the content, the save set up. The fact that a guru jumped right on here and commented so quickly? I'm happy and hoping that this will be fixed in an emergency repair.

Patch breaking 3rd party mods/content - that's not really the fault of EA. They specifically state when you enable mods that they do not support them. It's annoying that mods break so much but that's a risk we take when we use them.

I'll be building till then because I cannot play this game without my clubs.

"CarpeNoctemSims;15377272" wrote:



I don't mind.

Thanks

Hello
I have started a thread in the Games mods section of the forums for simmers to post about broken and updated mods since the December 1st patch
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/906370/broken-updated-mods-december-1st-patch