As The Sims 4 focuses on improving with quality-of-life updates over the next few months, a new one is shortly on its way, May 12 to be exact, bringing with it new highly-demanded fixes, as well as some new freebies for the base game. As per usual with QOL updates, a detailed laundry list documenting all the changes, fixes, and additions has been released a week prior to the official update, which we’ll go over.
Top 5 Most Asked-For Fixes From Community
We’ll start by covering the top 5 fixes as demanded by the community.
- Regarding the notorious “black photos” bug, this should now be completely resolved in The Sims 4. It will continue to be monitored, however, so if you still experience it, let the devs know.
- Sims should stop putting Infants down before picking them up.
- Sims should no longer get the Secret Witness Sentiment when a married/engaged Sim is caught WooHooing with their partner by another Sim.
- The “can’t place item” issue should be resolved for new and old saves.
- Sims previously stuck with Scandals should now be cleared of these, in both old and new saves.
Some issues found in Royalty & Legacy should be fixed in this update.
New Base Layer Feature for Clothing
Have you ever wanted to layer clothing in The Sims 4? Now thanks to the May 12 update, you can!
The Base Layers category will be added to Create-A-Sim, including 8 Base Layer options for Adults, 4 for Children, and 2 for Toddlers. There are 380+ Base Layer variants available, so get creative!
Infants and Toddlers Improvements and Fixes
Players have asked for various improvements to be made to Infants and Toddlers in The Sims 4, who are already challenging enough to manage without a host of issues! This update focuses on these two young age groups though, hopefully adding some improvements to their gameplay and management.
New Infant Playmat Available
The Playmat is a great item to have for Infants, so a new one with a new design in various swatches and colors has been added. Additionally, Sims will now automatically place Infants on the Playmat instead of on the hard floor.
Option to Disable Infant Caregiver Autonomy
Fed up of your Infant’s caregiver automatically tending to them? You can put a stop to this by disabling this in the Options menu under Gameplay. When set to Enabled, all care is still manual, but Sims can socialize with the Infants and automatically check on them.
Just be careful when disabling this option, as neglected Infants can risk being taken away by the social worker!
Infant and Toddler gameplay should be much easier after the May 12 update.
Added Thought Bubble for Loud Noises
If an Infant has ever woken up suddenly, you can now find out if it was due to loud noises thanks to a visual prompt, i.e. thought bubbles. You’ll also receive a one-off tutorial prompt when an Infant is first woken by loud noises. This newly-implemented system should help you figure out why your Infants keep waking up.
Improved Hovertips
The useful hovertips found in The Sims 4 have been improved for Infant-based gameplay, namely giving extra advice over feeding preferences and the tricky Stand Up Milestone.
Improved Infant Gameplay
Based on player requests, the following improvements have been made focusing on Infants:
- Sick of discarded stinky diapers left abandoned on the floor? Sims should now clean up after themselves, providing a trash can is nearby to dispose of it.
- It now takes a lot less time to change a diaper at the Changing Table, a third of the original time!
- Feeding an Infant also takes a lot less time now.
- The Infant Hunger Need should now decrease much more slowly, so Infants don’t need feeding quite as often.
- When an Infant’s Needs are low, their required actions should now appear first on the pie menu so you can quickly tend to them.
- Infant Milestones requiring the Tummy Time interaction now take less time to achieve, responding to comments from players that these took too long to get.
More Improved Infant and Toddler Gameplay
There are even more fixes and improvements made for Toddlers and Infants in The Sims 4:
- Several fixes have been applied surrounding the most commonly frustrating issues with Infants and Toddlers, such as constant pick-ups and put-downs, conflicting caregivers, and Sims freezing in mid-action.
- When Sims are out and about and their Infants and Toddlers are left at home, their Needs won’t decrease. This means you’ll no longer come home to a distressed youngster with most of their Needs in the red danger zone.
- The “reading to Toddlers” action should now work correctly, allowing Toddlers to successfully ask an older Sim to read to them. The Read to Children action done by adults should also work properly now.
- Infant Milestones should stop disappearing when visited by another playable household.
- Infants should be able to act on their unlocked developmental Milestone progress when not at home.
This update has a big focus on improving gameplay for Infants and Toddlers.
Fixes for Autonomy
For a while now, issues with autonomy have been vocalized by players. In recent updates, this has been directly addressed, and this new update is no exception.
- Sims should stop dancing so often (now once a day only).
- Sims also shouldn’t drink as much water excessively (no more embarrassing bladder failures!) This doesn’t apply to old saves though, only new ones.
- Children should no longer be taken away by the social worker if they’re not being neglected. Applies to all saves, but doesn’t bring back Children already removed.
- Jealous Sims should no longer get upset when their partner interacts with their children.
Fixed Issues Regarding Sleeping (Base Game and DLC)
Sleeping behavior has also been fixed in this update, making it more reliable.
Base Game
- Sims woken by a nearby TV or stereo should automatically switch it off before returning to sleep.
- A hovertip has been added for napping to clarify that it’s a short action that doesn’t completely fill the Energy meter.
- Sims whose Energy hits rock bottom should now stay in bed instead of the passing-out action overriding this.
- Sims should now be able to sleep in the same double bed as another Sim, but only if their relationship is high enough.
Lovestruck Expansion
- An issue with Sims in a romantic relationship caused them to get out of bed if directed into it at the same time. A new interaction, Sleep and Cuddle, fixes this.
- Cancelling the Cuddle action on a sleeping Sim should stop both of them from waking and getting up out of bed. Both Sims will stay in bed if Cuddle is cancelled after one Sim has joined the other in bed. However, they’ll both get up as intended if Cuddle is cancelled before either gets into bed.
Sleeping issues have also been addressed with Lovestruck.
Royalty & Legacy Expansion
This update comes with several fixes for the newest Expansion Pack to date, The Sims 4 Royalty & Legacy. Although more details will be provided upon the patch’s release on May 12, improvements you can expect include:
- Dynasty Heads shouldn’t receive the Poor Leadership Sentiment if they haven’t done anything to warrant it.
- Offsprings of pre-made Dynasties (for example the Thebes) should now be added to the Dynasty.
- Pre-patch babies should no longer be born as a secret.
- Various updates focus on making sure the Grand Ball social event functions properly. The first includes Sims correctly arriving in the assigned dress code.
- Mask option shouldn’t be disabled when changing host’s outfit in Create-A-Sim during Grand Ball event.
- Mask icon UI fixed when hosting Grand Ball.
General Fixes to Base Game
The base game of The Sims 4 will also receive some general fixes. Although this will be explained in more detail with the update’s arrival, we can share some of what we know.
- Inventory bugs with photos should be resolved.
- Family tree accuracy improvements.
- Preventing incorrect relationship changes in Create-A-Sim.
- Reverting default Gallery sorting back to “Newest”.
There are lots more issues addressed, which will be listed individually in the May 12 patch notes.
There are plenty of general fixes for the base game, which will be revealed in more detail soon.
Top Community Issues Update
To wrap up the laundry list, we’ll look at some of the top community issues that are currently being looked at. While these may not necessarily be fixed in the May 12 update, they might appear in a later patch.
- A future fix for windows and doors glitching into walls caused by graphics settings is being looked into.
- Issues relating to performance issues such as console crashes and time freezing being investigated.
- Continuing to investigate ongoing issue with save file corruption.
- Looking into issue with partnered Sims forming unintended family relationship when entering Create-A-Sim.
- Investigating autonomous mean and insult interactions between Sims, possibly caused by Vicious Dynasty Ideal (Royalty & Legacy).
This just about covers everything you need to know about the upcoming patch for The Sims 4 on May 12. More information detailing specific fixes should be revealed soon.
