[OPEN] Plants shrink after harvesting/ Turns into harvestable [ Edited ]

[RandomBuzziness]

@SorrahV 

Just out of curiosity, do you have the Seasons EP? If so, did your plants revert back to that "pile of dirt" thing on the first day of a new season? This is the only time this particular bug has been happening in my game. I'm not referring to the regular change that can come with the new season either-- it happens to a random number of my plants whether they are indoor, sheltered, or otherwise would still be in season. For one of my lots where this happens all of my plants are either in a greenhouse or are sheltered next to a wall. It's never all of them, just some of them. I play with the long 28-day seasons so luckily for me I don't run into this issue very often.

Here is a work-around I have been trying. So far it seems to have worked every time I have used it in my game and I am curious to learn if it will also work for others:

- Go into Build mode and move the affected "pile of dirt" plants into your Household Storage
- While still in Build mode, take the plants back out of Household Storage and place them back in the ground, planter box, vertical planter, etc., wherever you want to plant them.
- When you have finished with all of the affected plants, exit Build mode

For me the affected plants seem to revert back to their previous size and state as soon as I put them into my Household Storage and remain that way when I move them back onto my lot. The plants start producing harvestables again the next day (assuming they are in-season, indoors, etc).

EDIT: I just heard from a couple of my friends that this did not work for them. Well shoot...

About this bug being related to the Eco footprint for that neighborhood I haven't yet seen that in my game. The neighborhood I am currently playing has changed from neutral to green (after installing many green upgrades to two of the residential lots) and it has stayed green for over 60 in-game days. The only time I had the plants revert to the "pile of dirt" was during the last two season changes. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, just that I haven't yet seen it. I've been playing several other households in neutral Eco footprint neighborhoods and they have been acting pretty much the same.

Anyhow, I hope you have some luck with this & maybe you can use this as a work-around until they can fix this in a game patch. :D

[Neutrobyte]

@Psychotps I hope you didn't mind me referencing your effort regarding Sage and Basil? I felt you deserved recognition, especially given your clear expertise regarding Scripts, Code and Mods (I haven't coded anything since about 2000 I think). Asking us to be patient is one thing, but asking those of us who know problem-solving, troubleshooting and even software development to sit and watch as bug reports continue to flow-in, whilst at the same time fixes for those bugs are at a minimum, is quite another thing. The only reason the Saved-Game Crash Bug was fixed so fast is because the Dev/Support Team knew it would have a dramatic effect upon the sales of Eco Lifestyle. Also, it irritated me to see dev-time was taken-up in the last patch to enable the "naming" of Cow Plants, considering they are one of the garden elements that are bugged right now.

[Neutrobyte]

@RandomBuzziness Nice try regarding the Build-Mode trick, but aside from it temporarily restoring my Cowplant's visual model once, it has had no effect on any of my plants, and in my case (and at least a few others who have had their bug reports merged into this feed), I don't own the Seasons Expansion, or Eco Lifestyle (I ended up merged into this feed after reporting all of the gardening bugs I'd come across whilst playing, not just the reversion one, post number #106).

[Raynn0124]

@RandomBuzziness I've seen the season change bug quite a few times.  In my case, it was always the plants that were coming into season (even sheltered, where season shouldn't matter). If the plants were harvested, they reset completely (the build mode trick doesn't work, but they re-grow in their regular growth time), but if they had harvestables on them when they turn into dirt piles, then they won't re-grow on their own, but the build mode trick works (it also works to put them in inventory, then hit undo - saves the trouble of remembering what went where).

I've had plants turn to dirt piles at other times too, but I haven't noticed what triggered it (sometimes it's almost the entire greenhouse).

[Psychotps]

@Neutrobyte You're right about that. It's all about money. They don't think fixing bugs will make them any money. They won't fix it, so we might as well.

The only reason they added the cow plant naming thing is because LilSimsie wanted it. By adding that tiny thing, and putting her name in it, they instantly got her support, love and that of all her millions of fans. Along with a TON of free advertising. Money.

[Yaanika]

@RandomBuzziness The build mode inventory trick doesn't work for me, either.

[BlackjackWidow]

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@SorrahV wrote:

New to the thread, but I just tried something in my game that created the dirt pile issue.  I realize it's a separate issue from the visual harvestable bug, but I can't find a thread for the dirt pile problem, so... sorry for posting here if I shouldn't.

My character went to harvest and care for all her plants in the morning, and about 10 of the ~ 40 plants (in planters, all normal to excellent quality) had reverted to a dirt pile when they were harvestable the day before.  I don't think they had been fertilized, watered, weeded, or sprayed for bugs the day before, but it's possible 1 or 2 had been evolved.  My lot is in Newcrest, I have all expansions enabled and a few mods. 

I looked up the cheat code for turning the lot from Neutral to Green to see if I could prevent this from happening again, and used it.  ALL of my plants immediately reset to a dirt pile.  They maintained their quality, but have become unharvestable.  Unless I'm mistaken, and I don't really want to start a new game without mods to see if I can replicate this, but it seems like this issue is related to changes in eco footprint.  I can understand this having an effect on the quality of the plants as a feature of the expansion (perhaps not to the degree it exists right now), but having them revert to piles of dirt and become unharvestable seems like it has to be a bug.  Just my $0.02.

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Great information, thanks for posting. I'm assuming when you say "become unharvestable", you mean the menu choices also revert to what they would be when newly-planted? I've experienced the same thing (under different circumstances), but any time I can get something to revert to a dirt pile, it's like it was newly planted. There's definitely a connection to the eco footprint in your case.

Since others without EL have experienced the same thing, I wonder if there's a "call" to a base game gardening function which is executing improperly or not checking current growth state before implementing other changes. But that's me trying to figure out the base problem again   

[SorrahV]

Just to clarify, yes I mean unharvestable as in can't be harvested that day, and the interaction options are as if it was newly planted.  The plant regrows at the quality it was before resetting to dirt, and I can harvest produce after a day or two, however long it takes the plant to regrow.  This save, all my plants are outside, un-sheltered, and yes I have Seasons - along with all the other expansions and packs, which are active.  I've had it happen in other saves with sheltered plants, in season plants, out of season plants, and have also experienced it with the change of season as well. 

I've tried the transfer in/out of household inventory trick, but it doesn't seem to work for me.

Every Sim I create ends up gardening - it is my favorite money-making feature of the game, and I really hope it gets a fix.  I honestly don't want to play anymore because of this bug.

[starlove77]

I've had this issue, and it seems they didn't fix this in the patch yet again with so many other issues that so many people mention that no one seems to take care of. I feel like it will take forever for this to get fixed and other issues. I was hoping this would of been fixed in the July Patch from how June patch messed up everything in the game where there is so many bugs and glitches. I'm very disappointed how they ignore the biggest issues and focus on little bug issues that isn't what people want.

[sopuggly]

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:PC
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Occasionally (10% - 49%)
What is your current game version number? 1.65.70.1020
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? All of them
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? I’m not sure as it’s random
What happens when the bug occurs? My plants convert into dirt
What do you expect to see? Plants
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Never used.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? Neutral/Not Sure 

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Random plants will convert back into dirt randomly, including my cowplant that still makes noises! They’re all in pots and planters, some indoors and some out.