Plants are returning to Mound Again

[HawnaKitty]

I have Seasons but not Ecolife. I have played with Seasons for a long time but the whole plants turning into dirt mounds started with a patch. I don't remember what one but it was over one year ago.

[g01denswan]

This happens to me every time after I start the game or travel and often after I fertilize or harvest. It happens to plants from base game and packs regardless of if they are trees or not.

It doesn’t matter if the sim has skill level 10 gardening or lower. My plants are perfect in both my old game on my old computer and my new game on my new computer so I don’t know if it also happens to imperfect plants.

It happens to plants in the self-watering Eco Living containers as well as the Cottage Living dirt piles. In my old game on my old computer, it happened with plants on the ground and in base game containers.

I have never used mods and only used self made custom content (recolours) in my old game on my old computer, but they were disabled. No mods or custom content have been use with my new game on my new computer.

In my new game on my new computer, everything was fine while I was playing the first day, but after the lot was loaded the next time I played, most of the plants had reverted to dirt piles. In my old game on my old computer, I first noticed the plants had reverted to dirt piles as well after loading the game.

I have all EPs, all GPS except Batuu and Vampires, all SPs except Spooky Stuff, Kids Stuff, Fitness Stuff and Paranormal, and no kits.

I hope this gets fixed soon as I enjoy playing multiple households and they all need to garden.

Edited to add that it happens to both sheltered and unsheltered plants.

[undiluted]

• Which packs do you own ? > All of them except Blooming Rooms
• Which plants are affected ? > So far, every single one. Spliced plants are affected irregularly -- I've had some stay put when a plant with the exact same splices, right next to it, was reset.
• Does it happen after fertilizing or what's the trigger for you ? > Individual plants are sometimes affected by fertilizing. Lot-wide resets, not sure. Sometimes happens after moving a single plant in build mode, sometimes it seems to happen with no trigger at all. All sheltered and unsheltered plants are affected simultaneously for lot-wide resets.
• Were those new plants or plants planted before the patch ? > New plants.
• If you have Seasons: Are the plants sheltered/inside ? > Had half sheltered inside a "greenhouse" structure, half outside. All were affected.
• If you have Seasons: Are the plants in Season ? > About half were in season, all plants were reset.
• Are you using mods/cc ? > Yes but it's also happened in my non-cc saves.
• What's your game Version ? 1.82.99.1030
• What lot type are you playing on ? > Residential.
• If you own ECO, does it happen when the footprint changes ? If not, what's your current footprint ? > Not that I've noticed. Current footprint is neutral.
• Are you getting any LastException files in your doc folder when the revert happens ? > No
• Are you using a bee box ? > With the latest occurrence, yes, three bee boxes inside the sheltered greenhouse spaces.
• Does the lot have any lot traits ? > Great Soil, Homey, Gnomes
• What kind of fertilizer have you been using ? Does it happen to plants that have never been fertilized ? > Compost and food scraps. Yes, it's happened to plants that were never fertilized.

[chitbill]

fixed, says https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/FIXED-In-Season-Plants-revert-to-dirt-piles-Patch-1-68/td-p/97...

which is what Google sends you to if you dare to look for plants-revert-sims-4.

It was related to a season change, true, but perennial plants (grow-fruits and money trees) should not change at all, although since they bear fruit, 
it might apply to them (in some twisted logical way)
And they revert while tending the garden, first weeds, vacuum-weeds, then mounds of dirt.

This is the only Forum in town with any hope of official answers, which is why I fight my own fatalistic attitude and come here anyway, but yes, they still revert, Yes, they are "in Season",
No, it hasn't been fixed (And I wish the title of that thread could be changed)
It's around 4:30AM in my game, and I don't think I've saved the plants in time for the 5:30AM harvest, which usually yields two-million.

[crinrict]

@chitbill This is a very complex issue and while they fixed one (or maybe more) causes, there's still others.

EA is looking for saves, so have you sent yours yet ?

See this for details: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/NEEDS-SAVES-Plants-reverting-to-dirt-pile-Patch-1-76-81/m-p/10...

[THE_SirLOL]

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:Microsoft XBOX One
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? EA and Microsoft would have that information
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? I have every expansion except the gay guy clothes one.
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Plants, wait to harvest, harvest open your eyes and see. It seems to happen more frequently when the weather is cold.
What happens when the bug occurs? Plants and trees that are planted revert to seed.
What do you expect to see? I expect the program to work as intended. Not having the plants and trees revert the seed. Especially the trees. Going out of season plants I can understand but trees? That just breaks logic.
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? Yes
Please describe the patch or change you made. I did not make the patch or update. EA did. They would have those records better than I.

‌

Screenshots will not work here. If I alter the screenshot it invalidates the legitimacy.

[BitterBubbly]

To those still having this issue (like I was) regardless of how many times it's been "fixed"...if you have the "Great Soil" lot trait on your lot, remove it. It's broken.

Having the "Great Soil" lot trait on your lot makes gardening impossible because causes ALL your plants (including the ones in indoor greenhouses) to revert to dirt piles, even when they're in season. . 

I had the reverting plant bug for months no matter WHAT I did to try to stop it and seriously considered eliminating gardening altogether since gardening is pretty pointless when your plants constantly disappear, but I finally thought to test that lot trait, and that was definitely the culprit (at least in my game).

Removing the "Great Soil" lot trait is the only thing that solved the problem. I removed that lot trait a month ago and I haven't had a single plant revert to a dirt pile since then. 

If you've got the "Great Soil" lot trait, get rid of it. It does the opposite of what it's supposed to do. It doesn't help gardening. It breaks it. 

[flotsette1]

Interesting info about the Great Soil trait. bienchien, a great modder, identified the issue as something that happens in relation to plant evolution that came out with Eco Lifestyle.  It has to do with the eco footprint giving hits to the plant evolution, this is why they don't ALL revert and do it sort of randomly. Carl of Carl's Guides actually just released a mod that fixes this issue which you can find at his Patreon

[CM - Removed mod link]

[GiardiniDiMarzo]

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@BitterBubbly wrote:

To those still having this issue (like I was) regardless of how many times it's been "fixed"...if you have the "Great Soil" lot trait on your lot, remove it. It's broken.

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Thank you! I'll try this one.

[cozybunnyxo]

@BitterBubbly Yup I had mentioned this before, that the plot trait may very well be the culprit. I removed it and my plants haven't reverted yet, except for my money tree, that one still reverts to the mound on occasion.