When you first start a game and your neighbors knock on your door to welcome you, sometimes the invite neighbors option doesn't work. You can click on it but the action just gets queued and nothing happens. What's weird is that the neighbors do some jittery head and body movements as if they were fast-forwarding even though it's at normal speed. It isn't just for new neighbors but sometimes even friend visits and so on. It can be really frustrating when you're trying to spam the invite-in option only for them to get a negative friendship and leave.
@JnhoKaddia Hello! That sounds really strange. Are you on PC or Mac and using mods? If so, try moving your mods folder to the desktop and delete the localthumbcache.package file located in the Documents / Electronic Arts / The Sims 4 folder before opening the game for testing. If you're still having the problem, then you know for sure it's a mod issue. You can then start adding your mods back to the game a little at a time (also deleting that cache file) to see which one is causing the issue.
@JnhoKaddia Okay. Thanks for that information. I do see some older reports of issues with the Welcome Wagon event. However, it doesn't appear to be consistent and I don't see any "fixes". Just to clarify, when you are clicking on the sims to "invite in", the event has begun and the Welcome Wagon timer is displayed in the upper left corner. Is that correct? If so, perhaps you could try a game repair through Origin or the EA app? Make sure you exit the game. If you're using Origin, go to the game library, right click on the game and choose repair. If you're using the EA app, click on your game, click the Manage button and choose repair. Allow the repair to run for all packs and kits. Let us know if that helps or not.
Sorry for late reply. The timer doesnt start because clicking on invite in doesn't do anything then after that they get negative friendship and leave. This happens rarely.
And also the other thing with the fast head and body movement I think it may have something to do with owning a faster PC because it never used to happen on my older slower one, though thats just a guess. I have my fps set to 60 anyway. I haven't tried repair yet. I might do that.
@JnhoKaddia I just started a new game and the neighbors have descended on my sims' home. I only had options to introduce my sims before the event started and the timer appeared. This was after one of the neighbors knocked on the door.
I clicked on the "Invite Neighbor(s) In" option. My sim went out to Grace, who was the one who knocked, and welcomed the wagon, so to speak. After that, all the neighbors came into the house. Grace immediately headed for the computer. lol At any rate, I'm stumped as to why it's not working for you but hopefully a repair will help.
As for the glitchy animations, perhaps you could play around with the graphics settings both in your computer settings and the Game Options. I'm no expert when it comes to those settings but I'll ask around to see if anyone has ideas about that.
Edit: I have one computer guru friend who said, the graphics settings should not be causing glitchy animations. They suggested testing a different lot. Have you experienced this on other lots? Perhaps try a premade Maxis lot. Does your current lot have any platforms? Maybe test this on a lot that is at ground level, no foundation and no platforms, just to see if there's a difference?
I think I understand now based on the picture. You don't need to click invite neighbours to get the pop up timer. But I didn't get that timer. To clarify I just moved into Sulani in the empty house by the ocean right beside the beach and across from the other empty house. My sim decided to go for a swim the second he arrived and not long after the neighbors arrived. I instructed my sim to invite in the neighbours but he just floated in the ocean doing nothing and the action queue just stayed queued. Then I walked him off to shore and tried again but nothing, all the while the sims by my door were doing the weird head movement(They look to the left then back straight ahead then back to the left and repeat. Kind of looks like fast forward.)
I can't remember what I did afterward but I think I tried speeking to the sims but even that didn't work so they all just left with bad impressions. This weird bug only happened to me twice in all my time playing so its not much of a deal but its still weird.
The jittery movement though is persistent and happens almost all the time(Only On my new PC. I'll screw around with the graphics settings to see if it changes anything) , though only when sims are knocking on doors. It's not a big deal either but it's still kind of weird.
Edit: I might have also spoken with the dolphins. They might be behind all this.
Based on your feedback, I decided to try a similar scenario. I started a new game, created a sim (mermaid) and moved her into Lagoon Look. I think that's the lot you described. Once in the game, I sent her to swim and talk to the dolphins. The Island Welcome Wagon event triggered around 11:00 am game time. I saw the weird bobble-head movements you described! However, when one of the sims knocked on the door, the event timer popped up right away. One slight difference is that I added a family to the empty lot across the street; Tangled Flat. That household, along with Lia Hauata, showed up for the welcome event.
I clicked Invite Neighbor(s) In from here. My sim was still out by the buoy and she didn't move immediately but after a few seconds, she did swim back to shore and then spoke with the neighbors.
Since I was able to replicate the strange movement, I think that might just be an artifact of the Island Welcome Wagon, though I can't be sure. As for the glitch with the event itself and not getting a timer or being able to invite the neighbors in, I wonder if you might repair the game again and start a new game to test and see if the problem persists. It could be that your current save just glitched for some reason. Maybe also try adding a household to the Tangled Flat lot, just to see if maybe the glitch is only with the premade households?
Edit: I play with mods, so just to be sure, I moved mods out and started a new game. Same scenario above except I did not create another household. Around 10:45 am in game, the Island Welcome Wagon triggered. Again, I noticed the weird movements but when I clicked to invite in the neighbors, my sim immediately swam to shore and spoke with them.
Another situation similar occurred to me again but this time with the potty animation. This was after I did a repair of the game. So here I was in salvadora trying to clear a path of vines with my hands when suddenly I was attacked by spiders. After that fiasco, my sim needed to go to the bathroom while his bathroom need was in the red, so I figured there are pee fertilize bushes scattered around the jungle I'll just click on the little toilet symbol on the needs page and he'll walk to the nearest bush and pee. The nearest bush was a few feet away but instead of pee-walking there, he pee walked straight passed it and every single one after that one. I was confused so I canceled the task but he kept on pee walking. I was beginning to think he'd pee walk all the way back home so I started to click on fertilize on the bushes but he wouldn't listen. The action queued but it never went through. Any and all actions were frozen and wouldn't go through including walk here or walk there. This is similar to my first problem. I guess I'm just unlucky to have encountered it again.
Edit: I have encountered another strange bug not long after that I can't seem to get rid of. Its the description window everytime you hover your mouse over an object, in my case its the double bed description. So basically, some objects that I hover over gives the double bed description. Say I hover over a painting or a glass of water or mounted fish on the wall, it will show the double bed description. I think I got this when I got a phone call while I was sleeping when someone asked me for a date at a bar. I accepted and in that instance when the phone call closed my mouse was over the bed where my sim was sleeping causing the doublebed window to popup the second it transferred me to the bar causing the glitch.
@JnhoKaddia I've encountered that thing with the popup a number of times. It isn't consistent though, and I haven't been able to figure out what causes it.
For the other issues you're having, I wonder if you might try a "factory reset". There are instructions for this here...
Basically, this will make it so you have a fresh TS4 folder with all the original settings to then test and check if you're still having problems. Just be sure to make a backup of your game so you don't lose your saves and such.
@JnhoKaddia I just had a normal Welcome Wagon event in my game and noticed the same odd movements by the neighbor sims. It appears it's not just part of the Island Welcome. Is this what you're seeing?
