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EA_Cade's avatar
EA_Cade
Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
3 months ago
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The Life of a Sims 4 Bug

Sul Sul! In yesterday's Laundry List we provided a behind the scenes look at the process we follow of identifying and resolving bugs in The Sims 4. In the interest of transparency as well as to pre...
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  • EA_Cade's avatar
    EA_Cade
    2 months ago

    Folks, 

    This is a space for any feedback or questions on our investigation process; this is not a space for you to tag me to look into specific issues or bugs. 

    Comments that deviate from this topic will be removed or merged with their respective bug reports.

CapitanTony's avatar
CapitanTony
Seasoned Ace
2 months ago

What's frustrating to me is that new bugs aren't being addressed quickly. The game is old; there are a lot of bugs that will probably never get fixed. But every time a new pack comes out, new bugs appear. And the worst part is, they aren't limited to what came in the pack. For example, there is now weather inside the house, as in rain and snow. That goes back to at least January. About FIVE months, now. It's one thing to slowly fix what's been wrong with the game for years, but it's ridiculous to introduce new bugs and not fix them promptly. It's like zero progress being made with the old one step forward two steps back routine we have going on.

Miataplay's avatar
Miataplay
Legend
2 months ago

We need to get to a point where we as gamers stop asking for the game to be remade and demand bug fixes over new DLC... playing the game is the only way to know what is offered through DLC and what bugs are in the DLC.

I Want new worlds and playable DLC but not at the cost of game performance and playability.

  • canelacaliente's avatar
    canelacaliente
    Seasoned Ace
    2 months ago

    After years of dealing with The Sims 4’s ever-growing bug list, I’ve realized something: smaller packs (Kits/Stuff Packs) consistently have fewer bugs and get fixes faster than large Expansions or Game Packs. If EA wants this game to survive long-term, they need to rethink their DLC strategy—modular, smaller packs would reduce bugs, speed up fixes, and keep the game functional.

    1. Smaller Packs = Fewer Bugs, Faster Fixes

    • Kits & Stuff Packs rarely have game-breaking bugs because they’re simpler. When issues do arise, they’re patched quicker (e.g., Bust the Dust fixes vs. Eco Lifestyle’s untouched mess).
    • Compare:
      • For Rent (Game Pack): Landlord system broken on launch, tenant AI glitches, event failures.
      • Tiny Living (Stuff Pack): Mostly stable, minor bugs fixed within weeks.
    • Less code = fewer conflicts. Expansions like Get Together (clubs) and Eco Lifestyle (N.A.P.s) break each other because their systems collide (N.A.P.s sometimes will override club activities). Smaller packs avoid this.

    2. Big Packs Are Bug Factories

    • Expansions/Game Packs introduce complex systems that conflict with older content (e.g., Business and Hobbies’s small business venues vs. Get to Work’s retail rentals).
    • Testing is impossible at this scale. How can QA check every interaction between 20+ Expansions? Result: Bugs like:
      • Couples and celebrities invading in vacation worlds
      • Eco Lifestyle’s community lots broken
    • The more systems added, the more the game crumbles. We’re past the point of no return with 20+ large DLCs.

    3. A Modular Future: How For Rent Could’ve Worked

    Instead of one buggy Expansion Pack, imagine six smaller, stable packs:

    1. Stuff Pack: Landlord Luxe
      • Rental lot type, landlord events, property aspirations.
      • Focus: Core rental mechanics (no fluff = easier to debug).
    2. Stuff Pack: Neighborhood Hangout
      • Pool parties, Pot lucks, marbles, hopscotch, hot tubs, Generous/Cringe traits.
      • No systems that break existing gameplay.
    3. Stuff Pack: Sneaky Secrets
      • Break-ins, spy career, Nosy trait.
      • Contained gameplay (no overlap with Detective career).
    4. Stuff Pack: Fixer-Upper
      • Handyman career, mold system, water heaters, fuse boxes, ac, and furnaces, plus appliances that need repairs.
      • Solo systems = no conflicts with Bust the Dust or Eco Lifestyle.
    5. Stuff Pack: Vibrant Kitchens
      • Colorful appliances, pressue cooker, kettles, craftable counters, under-counter microwaves.
      • Pure objects = minimal bug risk.
    6. Adventure Pack: Tomorang
      • New world, cultural clothing/build items, rabbit-hole adventures.
      • No major systems = just exploration.

    Benefits:

    • Fewer bugs per pack (less to test, fewer conflicts).
    • Faster fixes (smaller scope = easier patches).
    • No more "this Expansion breaks that one" (smaller and more confined systems).
    • Less code bloat = fewer crashes, lag, and simulation delays.
    • Players buy only what they want (no $40 packs where half the features are broken).
    • Lets players avoid unwanted mechanics (e.g., N.A.P.s).

    4. Why This Won’t Be Popular (But Is Necessary)

    • Players love "big" Expansions—but would you rather have:
      • A stable game with smaller, functional packs?
      • Or broken "EPs" where key features don’t work for years?
    • EA’s current model is unsustainable. Every new Expansion adds 50+ bugs. 

    5. The Biggest Advantage of Smaller Packs: Fewer Bugs at Once

    The single biggest benefit of smaller packs is that they introduce far fewer bugs per release. Instead of players and developers drowning in 50+ bugs from a single Expansion Pack, a Stuff Pack or Kit might only have 5-10 minor issues at launch.


    Conclusion: Time for a Change

    I know this isn’t what most players want to hear, but it’s what the game needs. Smaller packs would:
    ✅ Reduce bugs (simpler systems = fewer conflicts).
    ✅ Speed up fixes (easier to isolate issues).
    ✅ Let players customize their game (buy only what they’ll use).

    • CapitanTony's avatar
      CapitanTony
      Seasoned Ace
      2 months ago

      I can agree that if packs were smaller they might have less bugs and be easier to fix, but the main reason kits and stuff packs now have very few bugs is they don't introduce much in the way of new gameplay. They are mostly made up of objects with the same function as those in the game already (a new sofa or fridge, etc). That's one reason they are cheap (relatively; sort of a you get what you pay for) ; new animations take the longest to do. Some of the packs do have new items, but overall they are mostly just new in appearance.

      I personally think that the reason everything moves so slow in the way of fixes is just the company's priorities. I know some bugs in the game might be hard to find, but the way the game has everything subdivided into individual xmls it shouldn't take that long to find a bug. Heck, they could just overwrite something that's not working and start from scratch. I mean, really? 100 people have left comments about weather inside houses and 190 have liked the opening comment. Yet they can't find it in five months? Or aren't sure if it should be fixed? Or just haven't found the time? I think there's been 7 patches in that time so plenty of chances to upload a fix.

      But there have been 11, count them, 11 packs released starting in January of this year, and more on the way. There's money in new packs, none in fixing bugs (except to keep people happy, which has never been a priority). So what do you suppose most of the programmers are working on?

      • CapitanTony's avatar
        CapitanTony
        Seasoned Ace
        2 months ago

        BTW, the reason you get things like celebrities and couples in vacation worlds is because that's the way it's designed. Say it's a lounge or park in a vacation world. There's only one xml that says what type of sims go to that type of lot. So celebrities show up at all of them, regardless of world. There is a lot of coding in the game for regions and such, sims in homes and not, fame leveles, etc, but it's WAY underused. I go nuts going in and modding to get rid of pets, celebrities and homeless random npcs. What seems like a bug often is just lazy programming. Or I sometimes think they feel the game should just be totally random and wacky, with no rhyme or reason to anything.

    • DaWaterRat's avatar
      DaWaterRat
      Seasoned Ace
      2 months ago

      Gonna have to point out that at least in the US, 6 stuff packs is $60 ($10 each) and an expansion pack is currently $40, so an extra $20USD for everything that comes in the current pack.

      Good for EA, not so good for the completionist player.

      I'm also not sure that a Stuff Pack that's more Sytems than Stuff (most of your pack suggestions appear to fall into this) would be particularly well recieved.  People still ding the Bust the Dust Kit because it only has 5 non-debug items in it, even though it also has the dust system itself and two aspirations, never mind that it was buggy as all get out when it released.  (I don't own it because I don't enjoy chores in my Pretendy Fun Times)

      Besides that, my understanding of how labor and budget is allocated at EA/Maxis is that it depends on the size of the pack.  While some developers have a knack for getting more into a pack than the budget would seem to allow for (see: Paranormal Stuff, Nifty Knitting, arguably Life and Death) this seems to be an exception rather than the norm.  So a pack that focused on giving us a world and everything needed to build in/create sims from that world probably wouldn't have much in terms of even rabbit hole explorations, because writing those does take time.  (and if anyone suggests AI for this -  Maxis has enough problems with quality control, we don't need sloppy AI added to the mix)

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