[FIXED] Lag and game instability if my Sim knows too many other Sims [ Edited ]

[HeroicJay]

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:PC
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? 1.47.51.1020
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? Cats and Dogs, Get Together, Vampires, Spa Day, Movie Hangout Stuff, Perfect Patio Stuff, Holiday Celebration Pack,
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Just make a Sim know a lot of other Sims (75+, and the more the Sim knows, the more pronounced the effects. So aim for 100.) Must stress, it's not the number of Sims in the game world, it's the number that a given playable Sim personally knows.
What happens when the bug occurs? Lot loading freezes up (it'll EVENTUALLY load, usually); Sometimes, after a lot loads, the load music will keep playing (overlapped with other load music tracks) during gameplay and cannot be stopped without turning the music off in Options; General game instability (crashes are common if too many Sims are known)
What do you expect to see? Loading goes as usual, music doesn't overlap, no crashes
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? Neutral/Not Sure 

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If I just fill up the world with a lot of Sims, but my own Sim doesn't know most of them, loading a lot takes a few seconds each time, and the game runs fine. If my Sim knows too many - 75 seems to be when it gets really noticeable, and the more my Sim knows, the worse it is - the loading seems to freeze and can take several minutes or more. To stress: a bunch of NPCs spawning doesn't do it, but knowing every Sim that exists in the base game simultaneously does.

Anything that causes the lot to load will make the loading screen freeze up - that includes starting the game file up, traveling to a different lot, and using Plan Outfits from a dresser. (Selecting to travel and then canceling doesn't bring up the load screen and doesn't cause the freeze.) If too many Sims are known, though, the game gets a bit laggy and starts to crash even when I'm not loading a lot (interacting with Sims, especially new Sims, seems to be the cause of the crashes.)

Since I know some things about programming, I have constructed a simple script that just makes every single Sim in the game world instantly know my Sim with 5 relationship points when I enter a custom cheat code (and does nothing else); that's enough to cause the bug to happen in a fresh save, especially if I add some Sims to the game world beforehand. However, I found this bug before constructing this mod! I made this mod only for testing the bug; if my Sim greets enough Sims through normal gameplay, this bug still happens! I disabled all other mods before testing with the "know everyone" mod.

The music thing is just a side effect; sometimes, when the loading screen freezes, then when the game comes back the loading music tracks all play over each other and won't stop until I quit the game (though the cacophony can still be quieted by messing with the audio settings.)

This isn't from a recent patch; it's been happening in my saves for a while, though the cause was not easy to pin down at first. But neither did I notice it before a few months ago - how many I forget, and I can't say with any real certainty if my Sims ever knew enough Sims to trigger the bug prior to me noticing it.

[zirize · Accepted solution]

It might be fixed.

I can't experience this problem anymore...

[Zasz_Zerg]

Thats one reason why I delete unnecessary relationships on my sims. Not just because the game cant handle it but because of the annoying phone notifications. Get MCCC and delete the useless relationships.

[mh4515]

Just wanted to say that this can be easily tested by using the console command: relationship.introduce_sim_to_all_others (unless they have disabled it, in that case you need a mod to enable it)

This is most likely why the game has relationship culling by default. It removes relationships with sims who your sims have a very low relationship with in order to save memory usage.

[Rosehrtgirl]

They really need to fix this so only one page of the relationship list loads into memory at a time when needed. Instead of dumping the whole list into memory at once. I don't want more culling. I use the MC Command Center relationship culling system myself. Seems to fix the problem, and works a bunch more effective than the Maxis culling system.

[HeroicJay]

Mm, problem is that I think of MCCC as a kludge. Just having it messes with too many things, many of which I don't want messed with and some of which can't be turned off. I get what you're saying, though. EDIT: Or maybe I'm paranoid or thinking of a previous version of MCCC. Worth a look at any rate, but this does seem like something that should be fixed anyway.

Also, if I knew that cheat already existed, I wouldn't have bothered making my own. Thanks for that.

[ArchXDiablo]

Can confirm this happens. And with how easy it is to fill your relationship panel, it becomes rather annoying. Yes culling can help but then again, I don't suppose they intended for our sims to consistently forget all the good friends and family because they have many relationships. 

@HeroicJay You only need MCCC with no modules and you already get the ability to delete relationships and prevent culling, no need to add other modules. And only having MCCC without modules does not mess with other things.

[zirize]

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:PC
Which language are you playing the game in? 한국어
How often does the bug occur? Often (50% - 99%)
What is your current game version number? 1.48.94.1020
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? All of them
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Make best friends with every home owner townies and at least two dozens of homeless townies with Beloved trait (Friend of the World aspiration)
What happens when the bug occurs? The sim who has friends count exceed certain threshold can cause very very long household loading screen. (5 to 15 or more min. game unresponsive when loading household)
What do you expect to see? The sim who has friends count exceed certain threshold can cause very very long household loading screen. (5 to 15 or more min. game unresponsive when loading household)
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? No

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I experienced this problem since early 2017.

I didn't know what causes this problem until recently.

Workaround:

Save your sim to the library with a mirror.

Replace with the existing sim with the saved one.

Since a saved sim has no relationship at all, no problem will occur until the sim has a lots of friends again. 

[zirize]

I am not sure simply too many acquaintances can cause this issue not friend. 

If you have a same issue, please check the sim's relationship tab.

[ArchXDiablo]

Knowing too many sims will cause different issues: lag, long loading screens, general glitchiness. I found this to happen consistently after 75 or so sims in your relationship panel. It is indeed a rather annoying bug.

It seems that relationship culling was not meant to just improve performance, but to outright prevent the game from breaking down. PC specs have no relevance here this is purely on their end. With GF the issue is worse with random sims always queueing with your celebrity. They need to rework how the game handles relationship data per sim.

[crinrict]

Hi @zirize

merged your post with other thread on lags with too many relationships