Problem

• My Sim does not wear the assigned club outfit
• I can’t use custom content on my club outfits

Cause

• If your Sim is wearing any custom content on their Everyday 1 outfit, they won’t change into their assigned club outfit
• Custom content doesn’t seem to work with club outfits

Solution

None at the moment other than not using custom content on those Sims or not using club outfits for the moment.

Problem

All my videos I took in game are black.

Cause

There’s an issue with a video codec

Solution

• Play the video on a different player than Media Player (like VLC). I believe they are ok when uploaded to youtube
• Record the video with uncompressed audio
• Switch your game back to 32 bit

Problem

• My Sim constantly goes to the toilet even when his needs are all green
• The shower interaction is dropped from the queue or my Sim doesn’t complete it.
• My Sims are constantly hugging and walk miles to do it.
• Multitasking interactions lead to cancellations of the interactions and other weird effects
• Many interactions are being dropped from the queue
• My Sims don’t follow any commands.
• My Sims constantly reset.

Cause

The cause of this is unclear but in extreme cases it’s often an incompatible mod.

The above list is not conclusive. This bug has many symptoms and it might just be multiple bugs too.

Many people are affected by this and nothing seems to permentently solve it but I’m trying to list a few workarounds that can help you make it better.

EA/Maxis is aware of the issue and working on getting it fixed

Workarounds

• Make sure you don’t have incompatible mods in your game. There are a few objects that also lead to issues.
• Repair your game through Origin.
• Delete your cache files, especially localthumbcache.package
• Buy the steel bladder reward.
• Turn of autonomy for your Sims in your game options.
• Don’t queue interactions that trigger multi tasking right after each other, especially everything bathroom related
• Everything related to bathroom seems to cause the most issues. Make sure to send your Sim without queuing  too many things. Sometimes it takes a few tries until a Sim does what told, especially when taking a shower/bath. It does seem to work if you’re persistent.
• Don’t let your Sims do homework in groups.

How can you help ?

There’s a thread at AnswerHQ: Queues being dropped/Done in wrong order/Random interaction added and one at the official forum: Latest patch: Toilet bugs. Add your voice there and make sure to press Me Too on the AnswerHQ one. 

Try to describe what you see and what you’ve tried. The more info, the better.

Problem

Each time I tell my Sim to take a shower/bath, the action gets canceled and the Sim gets back out immediately

Cause

• Incompatible Mod
• A baby in the vicinity of the shower. Walls and floor are not taken into consideration

Solution

• Remove the incompatible mod
• Make sure you have at least 10 tiles between the shower/bath and the baby. Even if they are on different levels, the game thinks it’s the same floor.

Problem

During each meal the Sims do a too spicy animation all the time although the food is not really spicy.

Cause

A small bug in a line of code that has a big effect on the game.

Solution

Ignore the animation or eat ice cream only. They don’t seem affected.

Mods that solve the issue

• Normal Eating (1.14 Spicy Food Fix) by plasticbox

Problem

After arresting a Sims and returning to the police station, the suspect is

• Nowhere to be found
• the new chief of police

I can’t issue another APB or cancel the case

Cause

• For some reason the suspect doesn’t make it to the police lot.
• I suspect that the game is looking to fill a role exactly at the point when you’re returning to the police station and chooses the suspect as a great candidate. Because of this, the suspect becomes the chief of police or any other role at the police station.

Solution

Finish the day by either doing other task or end the shift early and go home. The suspect should be on the lot the next day. If not follow the solution below.

With the following solution, you should be able to close the case and move on. The faulty suspect can’t be saved (only a library copy).

You also need to know who the suspect is and be able to meet him. It’s very likely he’s now a policemen himself, most of the time the chief of police.

Now you need to find out if the suspect is a random Sim or one that is living somewhere or that you even like a lot. If you do like him, I suggest, you save him to the library.

1. Save your game under a new name so you have a backup
2. Find out if the suspect is already living in a household or not. Change to the household manager and check all families. If the suspect is part of a household, you can skip steps 3-6.
3. Play at work until your shift is over. Just fulfill the other stuff. Also make sure you befriend the chief of police
4. Once back home, invite the Sim over to your house
5. Open the cheat console and type: testingcheats on
6. Shift-click on the Sim and choose Add to family
7. Go to manage world and start the household manager.
8. Split the faulty Sim from the household into a new one and then delete that new household
9. Go back to your home lot and play until you need to go to work again
10. Join your Sim at work
11. The option to issue an APB should now be back but you’re not done as you would just go look for the same Sim again that no longer exists in your game
12. Make sure testing cheats is still active and if not, reactivate it then shift-click on your Sim.
13. Choose: Detective Day Event – DEBUG: Get New Case Event (this will give you a new case)
14. Shift-Click on your Sim again and choose: Detective Day Event – DEBUG: Apprehend Suspect Event (this will give you two new clues to the new suspect)
15. Add new clues to the board and do whatever you normally do to get new clues. If necessary, travel to the crime scene again. The old ones will stay in your notebook. Ignore them. Only the new ones count. Keep continuing to get clues until you have at least 3 or 4 new clues
16. Issue another APB and go find your new suspect
17. Arrest him and hope he doesn’t become a Sim with a role again.
18. After closing the case, your notebook should be blank again.

Problem

When my Sims do their homework, they reset after finishing them, causing them to drop their queue. All other Sims in the same room are also reset.

The homework can then be found on the floor and it can be extremely difficult to re-find them.

There’s also a lot of homework lying around all over the community lots.

Cause

Unclear but the issue only occurs if kids do their homework on a bed, a sofa or on the floor. If they do it on a table, they don’t reset.

Teens are not affected by this problem.

Solutions

Try to make a kid do their homework on a table by placing it on the table first. Unfortunately this doesn’t always work.

Mods that help with the issue

• Homework Fix von scumbumbo

Problem

My TV doesn’t show any picture anymore on speed 2 and 3. It’s all scrambled and distorted.

Cause

This change is by design. I have no idea what the reasoning behind it is.

Solution

None, since this is by design.

Mods that help with the issue

• No More Video Distortion by scumbumbo

Problem

My scientist can only experiment and tinker on the chemistry lab. I can no longer create a Serum

Cause

Patch 1.16.61 has broken the chemistry lab for Sims that were in the science career during patching.

Scientist have a new hidden trait, which identifies them after quitting the science career. Because of this they can continue to use the chemistry lab even after changing careers.

Unfortunately Sims that are already in the career didn’t get this trait added which leads to the error at hand.

Solution

Variant A

1. Quit your job
2. Join the career again
3. Open the cheat console and type: testingcheats true
4. Type: careers.promote scientist
5. Repeat 4 until your back on the level you were before

After doing this, you should be able to create a Serum again.

Variant B

1. Choose the Sim
2. Open the cheat console and type: testingcheats true
3. Type: Traits.equip_trait trait_Hidden_HasBeenScientist

After doing so, you should have the option to make Serums again.

Please post here if you have further issues: [OPEN] [GTW] Chemistry Lab broken

Problem

My Sims always sit down before putting away dirty dishes and books.

Cause

Unclear.

The bug seems to be present with multiple interactions. Some cause it more often then others. I had it in my retail lot when trying to restock things or ring up customers. Also when I tried to write music. The Sim sat down before getting up again and taking out his guitar.

Solution

None

Mods that help with the issue

• Put Away Items Fix by bobdbg (The mod doesn’t help with every instance of the issue but with the two most important ones)

Problem

Some of my walls are being displayed invisible/transparent.

Cause

Unclear. Maybe the update corrupted certain rooms.

People that are affected by the issue say that downloading the affected house will bring the bug back. If you re-upload the affected house after fixing it, it’s fine.

Not all houses are affected by this and the same house can give one player troubles but not the other.

Solution

Try the following things. If one works, your can skip the rest.

• Re-apply the wall paper
• Re-draw the affected wall (all at the same time). The old ones do not need to be deleted.
• Delete the affected wall and rebuild it (one after the other)

Problem

When I try to examine my patients in the doctor career (most interactions) they reset and stand next to the bed.

Cause

Unclear.

It’s definitely a game bug and not a mod incompatibility

Solution

Currently there’s none. The doctor career is broken and non-playable.

Sometimes it works if you try the same interaction more than once or switch to something else in between. Swapping for sample seems to reset the bug in some cases. It’s not really a satisfactory solution though

Mods that help with the issue

• MC Command Center, V 2.11.0 and above

Problem

My curtains are blue

Cause

This bug is cause by the curtains snapping to the windows. With the changes in Lighting in Patch 1.19, this leads to blue/purple curtains.

Solution

It helps to turn the windows but that’s not really a solution.

BryonyRae found another workaround.

• Place the curtains on the wall
• Place the window.

Since this bug is caused by the curtains snapping to the window, it can be prevented by placing the curtains first. This prevents the that curtains and windows become one.

Problem

When I send my Sims to take a soak or mud bath, they wear the wrong face mask (like clown, fairy, ..)

Cause

The game chooses a random face mask as opposed to the one that should be used for the bath types.

Solution

Laugh about it.

Problem

• My CAS UI is completely distorted
  
• Sims and UI doesn’t load at all
  
• Mein Sim ist voller Fragezeichen
  

Cause

This issue can have several causes

• The following mods are broken and need to be removed/updated
  • More Columns in CAS v1.4: This mod has been updated. Get the new version.
  • CC Wrench Icon Overrides
• Faulty instillation

Solution

• Remove any incompatible mods or update them.
• Repair the game
• Rename your user folder (aka Factory Reset)
• Reinstall the game

Problem

All my employees are deleted each night. This makes it impossible to have a good restaurant, since my employees are very bad and the money invested in them is just wasted.

Cause

If your town reaches a certain amount of Sims, alle unhoused (not in world) Sims are culled each night (feature).

Unfortunately the restaurant employees are newly generated each time and you can only choose Sims that don’t live anywhere. Because of that, they are deleted each night.

Solution

You need to move the employed Sims into a house immediately after hiring them.You can put them all int he same household but they need to be housed. This makes them save from the deletion process (aka Culling)

If you change to that household, the Sims will no longer be employed. Because of that, only use the household manager to merge them into one household and them move into a house. This does mean you need to sacrifice one of your precious lots for them. You cannot play those Sims.

Mods, the help with the issue

• MC Command Center lets you mark those Sims to not-delete or you can turn off culling entirely.

Problem

My cook is cooking the meal but does so in a loop. Food never finishes

Cause

• This is caused by routing issues, especially if the chef station and the tray where they put the food on is not accessible.
• Lamps that sit low above a table can lead to routing issues.
• According to some report, it’s necessary to place popcorn and ice cream maker as well as fridge, microwave and coffee/esperesso machine on your lot if you want to offer these things at your restaurant. This only seems to affect your own restaurant. Not the ones you visit. I’m not able to duplicate this.

Solution

• Make sure the tray and station are not blocked by decoration and place all necessary kitchen appliances in your restaurant.
  

  Correct	Wrong

• Don’t Use moveObjects or the ALT key to place decoration above the chief station
• Don’t place lamps directly above tables

Special case Shimuzu restaurant by Maxis

To solve the issues in this restaurant, you need to change two things or redownload the restaurant as they have been fixed already.

• Newly place the chef station to make sure it snaps into place
• Remove the decoration above the station.
• Move the aquarium next to the chief station a bit forward

Problem

• My Sim owns a retail store/restaurant but when I go there it says I don’t own anything. On the map it still shows as owned.
• Some employees don’t show up at my restaurant
• I have a random employee showing up at my restaurant that I never hired. They are just standing around.
• I can’t close my restaurant. It just goes Bling.

Cause

Unclear.

For retail make sure to close your store manually before you leave the lot.

It’s possible that incompatible mods can cause these issues. Simply removing doesn’t fix the issues.

Solution

The solution is a bit unsatisfactory as you’ll loose your employees and the money in your store/restaurant.

• Go to the map and click on your restaurant/retail store.
• Choose Sell retail store/restaurant.
• The money for the lot is being transfered in your household funds
• Rebuy the lot (cheat money if necessary)
• Bought perks and earned perk points should be still available

Problem

• My family tree suddenly shows my Sim married to another Sim I don’t know.
• My Sim is already married and now there’s suddenly a second partner in the family tree
• There’s an unknown child in my family tree.

Cause

The game has decided that unhoused NPCs that go to a restaurant with a housed NPC need to be married. Hence they are marked as such.

Something similar happens with the children. For some unknown reason it creates children for Sims going to a restaurant together.

Solution

The following method can be done without mods, just with cheats. It’s not 100% satisfying though, since some of the icons you see in the relationship information are wrong afterwards. The only way for a satisfactory solution I’ve found so far is using MC Command Center (see below)

• Choose the Sim with the wrong partner and invite them all to a lot.
  
• Since my Sims both have a relationship outside their marriage, I have to tree divorces
  • Clara divorces Tomaso
  • Bjorn divorces Krystal
  • Clara and Bjorn divorce.
• Everyone cries and is angry at each other.
• The family tree is now completely messed (only ok when looking from the children’s point of view)
  
• To repair the family tree, Clara and Bjorn need to get married again. This can be done by several means. The easiest is to use cas.fulleditmode.
  • Open the cheat console with ctl-shift-c
  • Type: testingcheas true
  • Type: cas.fulleditmode
  • Shift-click on your Sim and choose Modify in CAS
  • Change the relationship from roommate to husband.
    

    “>

• After doing so the family tree should be fixed.
• The relationship itself can be fixed to a certain extend with Cheats.

How to prevent

You can try the following thing to prevent the bug, since the error occurs if you two NPCs go to a restaurant together

• Move as many NPCs as you can into a house and make sure you only have a few unhoused ones.
• Don’t play any legacy games where the relationships of your neighbors and their family trees are important.
• Don’t go tot restaurants until the bug is fixed
• I would not do above fix if you are already infected at the moment. Wait until the bug is fixed and do them all then (at least the ones that are important to you) If you do it now and play again, it will just happen again.

Introduction

Dine Out allows you to have restaurants in your game – as owner and as visitor.

Unfortunately, there’s a few issues and bugs that can make the experience a bit frustrating. Some seem connected and some seem separate issues so it’s difficult to say what the bugs and what the symptoms are.

For a better overview, I want to list them here and give you a few tips on how to work around them.

Issues

1. The Chefs never cook anything: The chef will act as if he cooks but no dish ever occurs on the tray/window of the cooking station.
2. Food is not being served: The waiters don’t actually serve the food. They either never get it from the tray/window or they get it and drop it on the floor.
3. Sims never get seated: Sims just stand around the podium and are never seated. They just talk and talk. If there’s a bar, they stand next to the bar and talk.
4. Sims don’t eat their food: Sims sit in front of a full plate but never eat it. They do consume their drinks.
5. Sims get up to drink: Once served Sims get up to drink their drink and then either never sit back down or sit down but never touch their food.
6. Sims get up to mingle with other guests: Sims get up a lot and just go over to other tables to chat. Sometimes they take their food with, sometimes they just leave their food. I also see them eating on benches or on the dance floor
7. Single Sims join already seated groups/groups join other single Sims: Sometimes a Sim or a group of Sims will join an already seated group that has possibly already ordered. This leads to food not being eaten or Sims never leaving. They look like late-comers but it’s hard to tell.
8. Sims never leave: Sims have eaten but then never leave and hence never pay.
9. The Disallow Option on the podium doesn’t work: Although I have disallowed new guests there’s more and more coming. Sometimes they sit at new tables, sometimes they join existing groups.
10. Employees don’t show up: My employees are still employed yet they don’t show up for work or just stand outside without coming in.
11. Sims are not seated in a logical matter: Some of the tables are always empty and sometimes smaller groups are seated at big tables although there’s smaller ones available. This leads to larger groups being split up. Sometimes farther away tables are preferred towards closer ones.
12. Restaurant is only loosing money when opened while not on the lot: Soon after opening the restaurant while not on the lot, I get a message that my restaurant is loosing money.
13. Booth don’t snap into place or disappear: When I try to place a booth, it just disappears or doesn’t snap to the table.
14. Eating at the restaurant takes forever: When I go to a restaurant with my active Sim, it takes hours until they finish their meal.
15. Only one course gets served: I’ve ordered a few courses but only one gets served.

Known Bugs

• Restaurant Employees and Culling
• Kids can’t drink rootbeer or cream soda
• Inappropriate behavior in Sim’s restaurant
• Restaurant corruption: Can’t close restaurant and it doesn’t show as owned in the dialog, only on the map.

Workarounds and Tips

The following tips should help with a few of the above issues although it’s all still a bit inconclusive.

• Make sure that the chief station windows and trays are free. This means, don’t place any tables/plants near the window/tray and do not use moveObjects or the ALT key to place decoration around it. Please see Food not being server/cooked for details.
• Make sure your employees are happy. Praise them and give them raises on a regular basis. Also pay for training. It might be costly at the beginning but it will pay off.
• Don’t let your employees work to long. If you’re getting a message that they are getting tired, disallow new guest and then close your restaurant.
• Move around your tables and kitchen if you have lots of Sims gathering in weird places. The bar and aquarium are a place for them to mingle so if it gets annoying, remove those
• Don’t place a bar close to the podium. Find another space for it.
• Make sure you have room for the employees to roam about. Don’t make the seating too tight.
• If you use the restaurant mostly to own and not go out with large groups yourself, build more smaller tables instead. I’ve never seen a group larger then 4 Sims visiting my restaurant.
• Make sure you use the right boot for the right table. The long booth fits any 2×1 table (except the bar height table) and the corner booth fits any 1×1 table. It’s also not possible to place two booth opposite of each other with one table.
• To avoid the initial seating madness in your own restaurant, open the restaurant from home and then travel there. Once you arrive the guests will be already seated.
• You get a message you’re restaurant is loosing money right away as the costs are higher than what you earn before they actually pay for their food. Wait a bit and check the financial report if the Sims are actually paying and if it gets better after a while before traveling there. Also make sure your employees are not angry at you.
• Once you disallow new customers, they can still come in until all the already assigned Sims are served. It should die down after a while. It seems to take longer in Windenburg then in other towns.
• I think the length of the meal has to do with general clock issues. As long as you don’t have to wait for hours (in which case food will never come anyways), I would say, that is normal.
• You can only order one course at the time. Once that is being served, you can order the next one. Ordering them at the same time, overwrites the first order.
• If you see food being dropped to the ground as well as glasses being dropped and you’re using MC Command Center, try if it gets better if you turn of the Put away books fix.
• If your guests are not being served, check if you can offer them free food/drinks or prioritize their meals.
• Wait with welcoming the guests until they are seated. In my experience, it distracts them from being seated properly
• Be patient. Sometimes they like to talk first before going up to the host.Most jams at the host station will clear up eventually.
• Lock doors to your kitchen. Build a fence and a gate if you don’t want to have it closed. If you have microwave and coffee machine, the Sims will just waltz into your kitchen and stay there forever.
• Make sure to put your trash can into a closed room/fenced off area as well. Angry Sims will otherwise kick them all the time or foodies go rummage in them.
• Only put one piece of decoration on your tables. Even the big ones.