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Release Notes for 02/03/2015, Version 1.4.83.1010

Greetings Simmers and Happy 15th Anniversary!

Let us set the clock back to the early days of The Sims 4, when times were simpler… when…

…our fore-coders released upon the digital landscape light on the Sims, and their brothers, their sisters, mothers, fathers, step-relations, half-brothers and sisters, and spouses. And the Sims, for a time, were happy. But only for a time, for soon their families grew. Brothers and sisters moved out, parents passed on, and grandparents were surprisingly spry and long lived. New members of the family were showing up every day (the loved and un-loved alike). And the Sims called to one another lost, seeking guidance…

“Are you my brother? I have forgotten your face, and don’t remember your name.” The Sims were unable to claim connection to one another, for their memories had become as holes in a block of Swiss cheese.

And thus it was, until now…

Genealogy is here! Explore the lineage of your Sims, their names, faces, and relationships! Remember who they are to one another!

Return with your Sim, and travel through the branches of their family … David from down the street is a half-brother to Stephanie, the long lost granddaughter of Two-chins, the homeless guy in the park who is the father of Angelina the bartender, who is your sister... and there was much rejoicing.

In addition to traveling through the lineage of your Sims, with this update you can now dress up Grandma Betty in some new Valentine’s clothing, or just hang around with a gnome and a bear.

We’ve also addressed a few bugs, including the map bounce issue, and, for all those Sims who spent their lifetimes waiting to be served, bartenders are fixed!

We greatly appreciate the feedback, the save files, and all the help in narrowing down issues as they arise.

What’s New

• Genealogy is now available. You’ll be able to look at your Sims’ family history, including brothers and sisters, mothers, fathers, grandparents (and some greats, and great greats, and…), step relationships (like Step-Father), half relationships (like Half Brother), and of course, Spouses.
• Open up the Simology panel (or use the [Y] shortcut key) and click on the Show Sim’s Genealogy button.
• Track 10 generations (4 up and 5 down) from the active Sim (yes 5 + 4 = 10)
• Click on other Sims in the view to focus on their genealogy
• If you have a large number of Sims in your view, you can click in any empty space within the genealogy panel, and drag to see more.
• Hover over the Sim portraits to see their relationship to the active Sim, their current career, how they died, and who they are married to.
• The Main Menu has had a facelift. Browse the in-game banners to find out what’s new in The Sims, what’s next down the road, what’s hot in the Gallery, tip & tricks, and more!
• We have updated the Whims.
• Whims now refresh automatically when you sleep for more than 4 hours, become dazed, or return home from work
• Hover over a whim and click on the Pin button to pin the whims you want to keep (sorry, you can’t pin Emotional Whims).
• Or click the X button to get a new whim.
• There are new achievements for playing with generations.
• Legacy Player, Alphabet Legacy, Legacy Leader, and Legendary Legacy!
• There’s new content in Create A Sim!
• Male and Female Valentine’s Day shirts can be found under t-shirts
• Male Valentine’s boxers can be found in the underwear category
• Female Valentine’s lingerie can be found in the underwear and brassieres categories
• There’s new content not in Create A Sim!
• The gnomes have sent an emissary to ring in the 15 year celebration, look for the Happy Gnomiversary!
• The “Lots of Love” Bear is ready to spend his Valentine’s Day with you.
• We found the Bearly Gnome hiding in the forests of Outdoor Retreat, coerced him gently from his den, and plopped him into your game.
• A venue version of the Winter Holiday Speaker has been added to the audio sort.

Crash / Performance

• Some players were reporting that they were continuing to be unable to load their lots after the 1/13 release and we have fixed additional issues with being bounced back to the Neighborhood Map. Thank you for the save files that helped us track this issue down, we love looking at your save files!
• In addition, we fixed an infinite load issue that resulted if the player attempted to load into a lot that had been split via Manage Worlds, with a baby.
• We have spent time optimizing load times. It should be noted that the amount of improvement is dependent on machine spec as well as the size and content of the save file.
• Additional fixes were made to reduce save game bloat which will help lower the amount of memory required in order to load the save file, and provide stability.
• Fixed a crash that resulted if the player attempted to 'Save to Library' an item they had previously reported.
• We fixed an infinite load… I’m sorry to interrupt myself, but honestly as we have not yet been able to test if it really is infinite, the best we can do is assume, although given the lifespan of your average computer, the decay rate of the plastics and metals contained within, and the generally low longevity of even the high end hard drives, I have to imagine that we are being quite disingenuous by saying infinite. None-the-less… we fixed an infinite load issue when favoriting items on the gallery that had been reported.

Build / Graphics

• Fixed an issue that was causing seated Sims to shift to the T-pose when attempting to clean a stack of dishes on the surface in front of them.
• A Moment at DevCorner: T-pose is what is meant when a Sim fails to play an animation, and instead reverts to their default position, which is shaped like a T (standing with arms outstretched).
• We have adjusted the Sim lighting when Laptop Mode is active to be less unfriendly to the “I need light to see” players.
• When visiting the Rattlesnake Juice Bar, Sims will no longer take an oddly long path to avoid the front edge of the lot.
• The Landgraabs did not run a proper geological survey of their homestead before moving in. This resulted in their inability to go swimming in some pools, on some parts of their lots, some of the time. The sum of these issues have been fixed.

Gameplay / Tuning

• There is a reward store to spend your satisfaction points on consumables and traits – go spend them. There is now a tutorial tip that will remind you.
• Fixed an issue with the way that relationship decay was functioning that was causing recently acquired friends to quickly un-friend. A buffer has been added to keep friends as friends, and provide the player the ability to react to negative outcomes as they happen.
• Titan and Titanic will no longer be blocked by the Gallery profanity filter.
• Sims were not informing their partners if they were pregnant after taking a pregnancy test. Thus leaving the partner in the dark until the "Whoa, where did they come from?" moment. Now, if the pregnancy test-takers partner is on the current lot, they will share the big news with them. If they aren't... well... what the Sim doesn't know...
• NPCs will now wave goodbye when they leave the lot, and nearby Sims will return the wave (if they aren't busy eating, showering, sleeping, smashing doll houses…)
• We fixed an issue where newly made households from Create A Sim, that had their future homes edited before moving in, would lose their relationships to one another upon moving into the lot.
• Adults that were asked to read to children would often times become so engrossed in the story that they would forget to actually read to the child. We’ve fixed this issue by informing the adults that the purpose of reading to their children is to connect with them, creating a lasting bond of love and trust, and not so much about finding out just how far Spot can run.
• It is no longer possible to use the Play with Genetics option in Create A Sim to create a child of a child or teen. The Play with Genetics Sim selector was incorrectly, in some cases, allowing a child or teen to be selected as the parent.
• In addition we fixed a few other issues with the Play with Genetics selector that were creating confusion when setting relationships.
• It should no longer be possible to create a child and parent of the same age.
• An order of operations issue was fixed that prevented the player from setting sibling relationships that were valid to set.
• And we fixed an updating issue that prevented the drop down from properly displaying relationship options.
• The Grim Reaper is no longer available to age up from the Sim selector. Grim is in fact ageless, as you know, and the option was a test of The Reaper. Congratulations you passed, one additional year has been added to your life.
• Children will find the computer less accommodating to…um, if two consenting adults should happen to be in a rocket… I mean, if there is a rocket in space, and you are at the computer, you can listen to the launch, and the broadcast from space. But if the adults are in the rocket… well, if the child tried to use the computer… and the consenting adults were to, that is to say, if they became friendly then… the child can’t listen at the computer anymore.
• The second milestone of the Rambunctious Scamp aspiration has been changed to practice typing for 4 hours.
• The Gym Rat trait was confusing, and has been updated. Gym Rats build fun and don't lose additional (does not affect the normal rate of hygiene decay) hygiene while exercising.
• Now 50% less tutorial, because... well, you know.
• We fixed an issue that would cause Sims to lose work performance unfairly if… here we go… Sim A and Sim B traveled to a non-home lot. Sim A (the non-working Sim) traveled to another lot just before Sim B (the working Sim) went to work, and then Sim A returned to the lot they just left, which would then cause Sim B to return from work early and thus lose performance.
• If you could follow that bug, I should show you some of the bugs we fixed with generational game play… create an 8 Sim household, marry 2 of them, have step children, and some adoptions, then kill somebody. Re-arrange the family through manage worlds and splitting, and re-enter live mode. Notice that the Earth has stopped rotating…
• We fixed an issue that was causing Gallery lots to break that was the result of saving a new lot on top of a pre-existing lot in the player’s library that had been shared to the Gallery.
• Angry pregnant Sims will no longer choose to Take an Angry Poop when taking a pregnancy test (yep, you read that).
• Updated the text when clicking on a Sim in the relationship panel to Travel With… instead of Invite To… The latter option was confusing and did not properly inform the player that they would be taken to the Neighborhood Map in order to travel.
• Sims will no longer use the Observatory until they are near death. Rather, they will now exit after a reasonable time.
• Fixed an issue that was preventing the Technically Adept goal “Maintain Focus for 2 Straight Hours of Video Gaming” of The Computer Whiz branch of the Knowledge aspiration from completing properly.
• Sims can now have dates on their currently active lots.
• Bartenders are back on the job! Autonomous and player requested beverages are once again being served.
• Sims will no longer believe they can mourn their loved ones while they are doing other actions, such as cooking, which was causing the Sim to cancel the non-mourning action.
• So fire… recently we informed you that fireplaces could catch nearby objects on fire and well they did. Including ceiling lights, objects on the mantelpiece… and apparently they did it a lot. We’ve lowered the chance of fire spreading to nearby objects and made the way in which fire spreads from the fireplace to be cone shaped, which should prevent mantel placed objects from catching fire…. which you couldn’t put out anyway. So yeah… oops.
• As a result of bad hygiene, Sims were getting dirty, and then dirty and stinky. Now Sims will get stinky, and then dirty and stinky.
• Sims will no longer get a whim to know themselves… that is to say to introduce themselves to themselves.

UI / Interface Updates

• Using the game options to change resolutions will now properly save.
• Btw, did you know you can also drag the window to resize it? (including very small sizes)
• Hovering over the skills in the skill panel will now display example objects that you can use to help build those skills.
• The “It’s Not Brain Surgery” achievement now has an icon when it slams your screen… SCREEN SLAM!
• It’s 2015, did you know? We totally knew that... now. (patch notes now have the correct year)

The Sims Outdoor Retreat

• Adding a log to the campfire while seated, will no longer cause the log to appear too soon, spin around, and then… feels like I’m watching some sort of talent reality show just before the really good talent arrives and they’re warming you up with the “you’re just not cut out for this” crowd.
• The Bramble Patch is no longer available to explore if you are uncomfortable.
• The horseshoe pit is no longer an exclusive hot spot for the focused and undistracted. Sims are now allowed to queue Join Game on the horseshoe pit no matter what they were doing previously.

Thank you for all your feedback, your help, and your time,

-SimGuruGnome

[Posted on behalf of SimGuruGnome, who should really post these Patch Notes each time but whose charm and charisma skills are so high, he is impossible to resist when he bats his eyelashes and says "please".]