NPCs obsessed with Clay

[rsemple123]

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:Mac
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Often (50% - 99%)
What is your current game version number? Most recent update as of 23/07/2020
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? All save for first pet stuff & spooky stuff
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Walk around the worlds, particularly a populated location/lot like a makerspace or festival.
What happens when the bug occurs? NPCs are frequently playing with the clay. Clay gets left on properties but then cannot be collected/deleted (without enablefreebuild). Certain lots (particularly makerspaces) have an abundance of clay and modelled objects everywhere until I enablefreebuild and delete.
What do you expect to see? Normal/reasonable NPC interest in clay
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Not now. I've removed them.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? Yes
Please describe the patch or change you made. Very noticeable after Eco Lifestyles. Somewhat prevalent before but not to this extent.

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First noticed as a problem after installing Eco Lifestyles. Before this, I thought it was just that I was noticing it lots, but once Sims were congregating in community spaces, particularly the Makerspace, it became annoying. 

If NPC is at house as invited singular guest or party guest, they will leave their clay everywhere. If they are in a public lot, probably 50/50 will leave clay or keep it (observed from say 6 using clay and then 3 clays leftover on lot)

Not that dramatic of a bug, but weird and annoying.

[karenh3a]

So they claim to have fixed it with NPCs (I have no idea if that's actually the case or not), but that doesn't help if you have affected PLAYABLE Sims in your game.

I am definitely still seeing clay spawning in affected Sims' inventories after the July 23 patch. I temporarily removed simvasion's mod before upgrading to the new patch, but I think I'm going to put it back, because the problems are not fixed.

The workaround that temporarily fixed the issue pre-patch (go to a different household, enact the NAP causing the problem, like Tech Support for future cubes spawning, invite over the affected Sim from the first household, repeal the NAP, return to the original household) still seems to work, which is the only thing keeping the game playable for me.

Are we going to have to wait until all the PLAYABLE Sims who were affected prior to the patch die off before this and all the other related NAP bugs are finally squashed for good? I am starting to think that might be the case.

I am not willing to start over with a new save. It's more of a hassle than it's worth, if the problem is just going to keep recurring. Frustrating does not begin to describe it!

[EmeraldLaura]

@karenh3a cririct alreday said the hidden traits of infected sims may not disappear since the update so they keep this behaviour. but if you make a new sim and/or gameplay it may not happen anymore.
anyways its annoying and in this case i always recommend to save your files external before update the Game and the best way is to play out-takes of a main save. then it wont hurt so much if you delete it.. not optimal but clever

[crinrict]

Would anyone send me their affected save ?

I'd like to try a few things.

[simvasion]

@karenh3a are you only using one of my mods? I do have another NAP mod that clears the behaviour stuck on played sims.

[karenh3a]

@EmeraldLaura  I have already started over with a brand new save TWICE since the problems started in June. I'm not going to go through that exercise again.

I just wish there was some sort of batch fix that could be applied to remove all of those hidden traits from all affected playable Sims everywhere.

[karenh3a]

@simvasion  -  The one I have been using is simvasion_ecointeractions_fix. I took it out of my game last night before installing the latest patch, to see if the patch actually helped at all, but immediately started seeing clay spawning again, so I'm going to try putting it back in.

Thanks for everything you've done to help the community since this mess first started!

[simvasion]

@karenh3a you should also try my NAP autonomy fix mod then, as it is the batch fix you are looking for.

[karenh3a]

@simvasion Really?? I didn't know that. Will go download and try it right now. Thanks!

[KatAnubis]

@simvasion Thanks for directing us to the mod.

Hopefully EA/Maxis will fix it so that it's not necessary. I like the other things that those NAPs do but I don't like the cubes or the clay. They're really annoying as they interfere with what I've instructed the Sims to do and the cubes/clay build up in their inventories to annoying levels.