What was your favorite bug fix or basegame/free update in 2021?

bug fix: stairs (lot breaking)

free update: pond tool (finally)

Bug fix:
-Stairs. That was bad.
-Gardening fix? I think that one was this year? That one took FOREVER to fix but they kind sort of got it I believe? Honestly, I'm still pretty confused on its status but no complaints from me so far.

Of the bugs I hope they fix this year, please let the "alien genetics reset on age up" glitch be amongst them. Please.

Updates:
-New hair swatches. I hope down the line we can get more unnatural hair colors as well. Lilac is nice but I want PURPLE.
-Pack refresh. A great idea and I hope they continue doing these. It's not the pack I think needs the most attention but it's a decent start to hopefully something recurring.
-Scared emotion.
-Bunk beds.
-Likes and dislikes. Needs waaay more improvements though. Needs to work better with autonomy and needs more selection. Would be great to have a food category as well.

Not a personally fan of the little concert event, but it was fine. I liked the outfit that we got out of it but that's about it. It merely reminded of me how much we need bands + a singer career (even if just rabbit hole).

Neighborhood Stories is a good idea with a rough start. Lots of tuning/tweaking they need to do and it seems like part of the update was prioritized for this 'love party' (wedding? romance? matchmaking?) pack were going to get soon. As long as the fixes, additions, and adjustments (and an opt out) come relatively soon afterwards, I think it'll be fine. It's honestly something that should've been in the game since the beginning and while many PC users will just use MCCC if they want story progression; console users don't get that option so this is good for them.

Shout out to one of my favorite bugs ever though: the food that never spoiled. You were the GOAT. Of all of the glitches they chose to fix, why did they pick you? You were so young, ripped away from us too soon. R.I.P.

...just kidding. But it was a fantastic bug to exploit. Only second to the one where if kids played toys together in clubs their relationship would skyrocket alongside building skill and made the social aspiration a breeze. THAT was awesome.

For future updates, I'm most looking forward to the premade overhauls. It won't affect my current saves but it'd be nice for things like the relationships to properly reflect what is supposed to be the dilemma in the bio doesn't show up in gameplay (Don's romance status among the caliente's, Bob + Eliza's marriage status, Johnny's relation to the Landgraabs, etc.). I just hope they don't get rid of Katrina from the Caliente household cause she's one of my favorite Sims 4 additions.

My favorite bug fix was the gardening bug... until I found out that it didn't work. :/
I guess because of that the best one is actually the stairs bug.

I don't know what was my favorite free update. Probably bunk beds.

-the stairs bug fix
-children gardening (cooking might be good too, but I don't use it)
-ponds
-Fingernails (I don't use them very often, but it's nice to have the option now)
-Skintones, hair colors (especially "neutral" black)
-Bunk Beds

I never or only rarely use most of the other stuff, and don't personally care about one way or the other -- as long as I can turn them off. Some others I wish I had been given options to turn off. For example, I use very few base game BB items, so all those gazillion new swatches are just sitting there taking up space for me. I rarely use the Likes/Dislikes system for my played sims and wish fervently that I'd been given the option to turn it off for unplayed sims. I don't really care what preferences the game gives to pre-mades or randomly generated townies, but I HATE being forced to micromanage my own custom townies now. They already had their own story-purpose preferences in the first place. The game never fails to wreck that, turning them into just a bunch of other NPCs with new likes/dislikes that have no purpose or meaning to their actual stories. I don't use Neighborhood Stories, either. If the game had offered me an option to turn it off completely, I would have used that option. Instead, I now rely on the brilliant @83bienchen for a mod to do that for me.

Edited for clarity. Another word had mysteriously gone missing...

The best update for me was the pack refresh. I used spa day a lot over the last few weeks. I also enjoy the bunk beds, additional haircolours and the likes and dislikes.

The best bug fix was the stairs. I would like to say plants as well but I have been having more trouble with plants reverting now than I did before the last patch.

The update I like least is the neighbourhood stories. I never like story progression in the sims 3 and have little interest in being constantly bothered by the unolayed households. All I want is to be able to disable it entirely or to exclude played households. I hope we can get the toggles in the options soon.

Edit : forgot to mention the fix on the food timers that always vanished. It was a small nuisances but it really bugged me that I could no longer see how long it was until my dishes got spoiled.

Sims autonomously eating leftovers instead of cooking is a great update. Also, Sims being able to cook together and chat is really great.

The likes/dislikes for categories is amazing. I hope they continue to add more and expand on this.

I love neighborhood stories.

The free holiday items were amazing.

Nail polish for fingers and toes.

Food delivery.

And Bunk Beds.

I'm sure there are so many I can't remember, but what I like most is how they are now including some free items/upgrades now. Even a small thing is very exciting and appreciated.

I think my favorite update was the Spa Refresh, including fingernails. I love fingernails! I add them to almost all of my Sims, especially the females, but also some of the males.

I also liked Sims Sessions, but didn't care about the clothing you can "earn" from it. I rarely use T-shirts in the game, and when I do, it's always either plain, or something with rainbow. I don't like T-shirts with logos or writing on them, even in Simlish. I like the fact that you can still purchase the stage in buydebug (at least you COULD for a while; I hope they didn't remove that), and experience those concerts again. :) I'd never heard of any of the artists before, but I enjoyed the music in the game.

I love the Scared emotion, and have deliberately made some personal mods that take advantage of it. :)

I love the skins and hairstyles updates. I recently went back to playing Sims 3, and was appalled at the complete lack of variety in hairstyles for other races than Caucasian. There are almost no curly hairs at all, and fewer for men than for women. I had never noticed it before, when playing Sims 3, but I sure notice it now, after all the updates in Sims 4. You absolutely need CC in Sims 3 if you want more variety, which is sad.

I love ponds! I'm not that great at building with them, but I like that they're available. I've downloaded a few homes with them, and I love how they add to the curb appeal and interest of the lot.

I like the IDEA of scenarios, but haven't been too impressed with what we've had so far. I've seen some modded scenarios that look interesting, though, so at least having them gives modders more things to work with. :) I just wish they allowed a scenario to work with an existing household. Without that, they are far less interesting to me than they otherwise could be.

So far I don't care too much for Neighborhood Stories. They haven't had much of an impact in my games, other than being a nuisance. I use MCCC to add story progression to unplayed townies (so they'll at least, you know, have BABIES, and not remain sterile forever), which makes Neighborhood Stories less impactful for me, but the phone calls and texts I get from them are annoying. Like many others, I wish we had a toggle to turn them off. I've heard of players getting calls from townies for questions that would impact their own current characters, and it can sometimes be a bit baffling.

"BlueR0se;c-18032305" wrote:

-New hair swatches. I hope down the line we can get more unnatural hair colors as well. Lilac is nice but I want PURPLE.

This. A thousand times, this!

Bug fix: stairs for sure

Free update: Neighbourhood stories and Spa Day refresh

I've never had a problem with gardening, so I guess the fix worked. Yay!

The likes/dislikes system is nice because my sims now have more ways to quickly refresh their Fun and feel like themselves again after work.