EA has just released a new Laundry List with bug fixes coming to The Sims 4 on the next game update.
This time, they also provided a little “behind the scenes” explaining how bugs are reported and then investigated by their team.
There is no confirmation on the exact date the next game patch will be available.
Hey Simmers!
Welcome to the Laundry List where we share the top community concerns that we’re currently investigating and hope to resolve in an upcoming patch.
As it’s been a year since we first announced our team dedicated to tackling technical issues, we wanted to provide you with a quick update on their progress. Over the past 12 months we’ve provided 7 dedicated Laundry Lists, fixed hundreds of issues, both new and older, with a focus on those most impacting the community. We’ve been pleased to make meaningful improvements, and recognize that this work continues. Over the coming months, we will continue to experiment with new ways to provide more transparency into the top issues we’re working on and make it easier to get that info via our Discord. This starts today, as we’ve seen lots of great questions from the community and wanted to address many of them by sharing what goes into this process from start to finish.
🐞 Issue is Discovered & Verified
When a player reports an issue via our EA Forums, a friendly Community Manager or EA Forums superuser will see if help can be provided through troubleshooting and alternative methods to try, confirming if the game is working as intended, or if this may be an issue related to mods. If not, they’ll check whether the issue has already been reported to merge it with an existing thread or start a new one. A ticket is then made for our Quality Assurance (QA) team to review. They may need to collect more information from players to reproduce the bug on their devices, which is critical for the next steps and why we always encourage players to provide as much specific detail as possible when reporting an issue.
Our Sims teams are also discovering and reporting issues internally that get documented alongside player reported issues. Due to the wide variety of freedom with The Sims 4, plus the randomness and variation in playstyles and player options, it’s impossible to truly test every possible scenario. This means that some issues may only appear in specific environments, and while we strive to address as many as we can prior to launch, we appreciate your understanding. When QA is able to reproduce the issue, they will file a ticket for an engineer to review and give it a severity rating, which can depend on how many votes it has received and how disruptive to gameplay the issue is for players. Your votes matter!
🔎 Fix is Investigated & Created
A team of engineers will be assigned to work on an issue and figure out the cause. The scope, type, and risk of bug fixes can vary wildly, from relatively simple fixes through to complete code system restructures. Given the almost infinite variations of devices, operating systems, unique combinations The Sims 4 content installed, unique gameplay styles, and mods downloaded, it can be no small feat to identify the root cause!
Once the engineer understands what’s causing the technical issue, they can start to plan how to best resolve it. Fixes can bring their own unique challenges, such as accidentally introducing more issues, which is the last thing we want to do. When the engineer has created a fix, the QA team comes back into the mix, to test each fix before it’s released to ensure the fix works as intended across all platforms.
🚀 Fix is Deployed to Players
If that all looks good, the code is then submitted for review for final approval. Once approved, it’s scheduled to be deployed during a specific release. We understand that with each update, there’s the potential to disrupt your gameplay, and so our team takes care to group as many fixes together as possible to limit downtime.
This essential yet often behind-the-scenes work involves collaboration across multiple teams. We prioritize issues based on both the reports and votes from the community, as well as the bugs identified by our QA team. Thank you for your continued reports and votes on what issues you want us to address!
Here’s the player reported issues we’re investigating for our next update:
- Fishing Spots in Sulani errors
- After finishing any quests, if the Sim travels to another lot, the quests reappear.Â
- Unable to place the ‘Rock Solid Faux Wall’ due to big foot printÂ
- Back Plate of Toilet Does Not Hide In Wall
- Leaves and branches become more visible when hovering and rotating the ‘Olive You Forever’ tree plant
- Textured glass swatches are missing for the ‘Wave Goodbye Privacy Screen’ objectÂ
- The Throne of Stone toilet’s back plate is now properly hidden when placed against a wall.
- The Olive You Forever plant now shows correct visibility when rotated.
There are other issues that do not have an EA Forum thread that we’re also working on. Please note that some topics can be complicated to replicate and require an extended investigation on our end, so even though we are actively reviewing, it’s not a guarantee that we’ll have an immediate fix for it in the upcoming patch. This includes the following top voted issues:
- Issues Impacting Save Files
- Status: 🐞 8+ related issues have been discovered, some require more player info to reproduce
- If you’ve been experiencing this, please add contributions to the relevant threads to help us replicate: https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/please-read-save-game-corruption/5037272
- If your saved game has been impacted, we have a troubleshooting guide available that may help until we’re able to roll out a fix: https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/please-read-save-game-corruption/5037272
- Weather Effects Occurring Indoors
- Status: 🔎 Fix is being actively investigated
- This issue is being actively investigated. If you would like to add your experience to the active thread on EA Forums, that can be found at:Â https://forums.ea.com/idea/the-sims-4-bug-reports-en/s-weather-effects-occurring-inside-structures/5051547
Please follow Sims Direct on X and in our Discord community where we will provide more updates when possible.
Thanks for all your patience and valuable help in reporting! Please continue sharing with us any issues you’re experiencing on The Sims 4 EA Forums. We’ll continue to check in, and together we can make this game the best that it can be.
Happy Simming!
