[NEEDS INPUT] [S] [PS4/XB1] Patchy not Activating Properly [ Edited ]

[PoptartJuniper]

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:Sony Playstation 4
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? 1.21
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? Everything Currently Available
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Place Patchy. Befriend Patchy's post, enough to unlock all his outfits.
What happens when the bug occurs? Patchy fails to regularly come alive even after friending his post. He is almost always inactive.
What do you expect to see? Patchy activating every day like he did before.
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? On console - never used.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? Neutral/Not Sure 

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I believe this started after 1.20? My patchy rarely activates. He spends all day and night on his post even when friended by a household member. This persists through household moves, putting him in the family inventory and back out again. My inactive Patchy even was placed back into a club, but he won't activate to tend the garden. Perhaps he's too busy with his Mixology club? I don't know, but I kind of miss him being around my lot.

Edit 2/20/20: Since posting this I have monitored my Patchy's activation. He activates without fail on days 8 and 10 of my 14 day seasons.

[RandomBuzziness]

Hi @PoptartJuniper . We've been trying to help another PS4 user on this same issue in the General Discussion forum with no luck so far:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Discussion-and-Feedback/My-Patchy-isn-t-becoming-Alive/m-p/8662475...

I know from reading your other posts that you are a very experienced PS4 user & that you have already tried all available troubleshooting steps. For the benefit of newbies like me would you mind reviewing some of the things you have already tried to fix this? I wish to avoid suggesting anything to other players that you have already verified will not work.

Thanks so much!

[CGrant56]

@PoptartJuniper  I play on the PC so I don't know if anything I can say will help on the PS4 game  but..

I have noticed a couple of things about Patchy.  Whenever I have a new sim in the house and want to work on the aspiration (I'm drawing a blank on the name atm, lol) involving the gardening skill, I'd been putting Patchy in the family inventory so he can't tend the garden autonomously because I want my sims to water, weed, plant, etc. to complete the milestones and level up the skill.  I noticed that every time I did that, all his relationships with other family members pretty much reset every time.  In most cases, you don't have to meet him again (occasionally you do), but the friendship level goes way, way down.  So, since the devs added the additional 2 basement levels (total of 4 now) a while back, I haven't been putting him in the family inventory any more, I've created a room with no doors on another basement level (my gardens are on a basement level everywhere I can do that so I can grow everything year round) and put him there via a quick trip to build buy when I don't want him in the garden and then move him back to the garden after the sims have completed most of the milestones and leveled the gardening skill up some.  It doesn't kill him or seem to affect his motives although you do see a lot of thought bubbles where he wants to do things.  But the relationship levels don't drop anywhere as much either.  

Now I do use a mod (MCCC) that alters relationship decay in my game so relationships drop much slower than an unmodded game and I prune my rel panels manually to keep them from getting too many sims in them (one of the things that will slow down the game a lot is too many relationships, easy to spot when opening the rel panel and it takes so long to populate).  So that is probably affecting the relationships with Patchy when I dump him into the closed room for a while.

 So you might want to try something like that and see if it works for you. 

[cozybunnyxo]

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:Microsoft XBOX One
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
What is your current game version number? 1.23.61.2300
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? Get to work, Island Living, Seasons, Cool Kitchen Stuff, Dine Out, Perfect Patio, Realm of Magic, City Living, Vampires
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Not Sure
What happens when the bug occurs? Patchy does not come to life anymore.
What do you expect to see? Patchy coming to life as he used to, almost everyday.
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? On console - never used.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? Neutral/Not Sure 

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When I first installed Seasons, my Patchy would come to life everyday, now he does not. He comes to life once a year now (In SIms Time) 

[crinrict]

@cozybunnyxo I merged your post with existing bug report on this.

[Bearpal64]

I can definitely say that I played for the first time with Patchy a few weeks ago and once the relationship was high enough it seemed that he would come to life everyday and then at a certain time he would go back to "sleep". 

[cozybunnyxo]

@cozybunnyxoAnd note: I have purchased new Patchys and it is the same. I also noticed he will only come alive during the Winterfest Holiday day and that's it. 

[crinrict]

@Bearpal64 Are you also on console ?