[NEEDS INPUT] [ECO] Future Cubes/Clay Spawning in Inventories

[jacknifelee]

+ Confirming that sims do actions of ALL active NAPs from all worlds. And those even override player-assigned actions which it total nonsense. 

[Ayanko]

@jacknifelee Really? That's game-breaking as can be. And I suppose explains why Sims from other worlds keep coming into mine and stealing literally everything.

[sharabeebee]

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:Mac
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? 1.63.134.1220
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? All available at the moment, but this bug only started with Eco
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? I'm not sure. It seems to happen to some sims but not others, but when it happens it goes wild.
What happens when the bug occurs? A sim will instantaneously produce a "Lump of Clay" in their inventory without being given it, having bought it, or my otherwise telling them to get one. This is also happening to NPCs as well. If I sell the lump of clay, it reappears in a minute or so. If I check again later then there will be multiple lumps of clay in the inventory.
What do you expect to see? If I see a lump of clay I want to be able to sell it, and for the Sim to only come up with a lump of clay if they are given it (Get Famous fanmail) or if I direct them to purchase it. It should not spontaneously appear or multiply without intruction.
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. I downloaded the patch before Eco, downloaded Eco, and downloaded the hotfix patch.

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This is especially frustrating because I've noticed NPCs and townies showing up playing with the clay when they visit, so I know it's happening to pretty much ALL of the Sims generated, not just the ones I'm playing. I've always hated the lumps of clay because there are other, better ways to get the Inspired boosts and Sims will leave them lying around everywhere anyway to clean up.

[crinrict]

@sharabeebee I merged your post with existing report.

Make sure to click me too on the first post.

[Marigold91]

Having this issue also. It happened after travelling from Port Promise to Conifer Station community lot, where there was a Tech Support N.A.P.

I've since gotten rid of the NAP, turned game off/on, repaired game, tried moving sim from the new map to somewhere else, tried marking as unplayed (as someone had earlier suggested) and still it's happening. It's completely game breaking. the sim is using the cube like it's a compulsion. will stop anything else - literally stop in the middle of having a shower to talk to the cube, and is having negative moodlets from it constantly. even if I queue for her to do something else she will use the cube first, which is especially annoying on community lots when using the fabricator because an NPC sim will get to it before her every time. then pair that with how often those break, and the fact that I already had to restart from scratch yesterday because of a different bug... 

i've been selling the cubes, because sometimes they stay in the inventory and sometimes disappear, tried leaving them, tried recycling them... my life evolves around cubes now. please just give me an option of deleting them from the game, if you can't fix it, because they're the most useless, annoying item in the game, and i for one wouldn't be sad to see them go.

[heather1314]

@Marigold91 @jacknifelee For me it was gradual - but still really quick. First, the cubes started appearing in their inventories. Then they started using them like a compulsion. Then using the cubes would override every action including the ones I set. That all happened within maybe a half hour but in the game, it was much longer. But "Practicing Programming" took over much faster. And that would override everything including checking the cubes. Even though there was only one computer in the house, they'd all want to use it. Wave their arms angrily if someone else was using it then "practice Programming" would queue up again and it would become a nasty cycle until I took it away.

@Ayanko I had to build a fence around my entire yard and lock the gates to keep people from stealing things. Cute little fence around the shipping containers - it's a look.

I checked on the discarded Future Cube fam and they're. still just playing with the cubes. And programming. Nothing has changed even though I moved them out of the neighborhood, into a completely different world, and marked them as unplayed. 

[wades_wiilson]

It's happening for me as well - but not with the sims I created in CAS. Only her boyfriend (Knox Greenburg) and the other NPCs around town.

[catatemyname]

NAPs seem to be really broken right now. Active for everyone, no matter where the sim lives. Have recycled a lot of stacked up clay from my sims' inventory. But the stacking of the items is not the part that is annoying, but the fact that to do some NAP-inspired activity sims will literally drop everything and do it. All. The. Time. And don't get me started on free stealing... Someone swiped the garbage disposal from the dorms in Britechester! And since you can't enter build/buy there, there is no way to replace it without cheating. So NAPs need a serious overhaul. And I also would love a "disable NAPs" option, in case they don't fix it. It is literally game-breaking.

[Abelia100]

This, the blob of clay and running off to paint are driving me nuts!  I never use free will and this spam is completely ruining my game play.

[jacknifelee]

@heather1314 So I figured if you don't disable NPC voting in game settings before playing EL, AND you have multiple households (I'm a rotational player), then in every neighborhood you have a played household in (including the ones you own a commercial lot in - I have a retail and a restaurant) there will be a new NAP added every week through NPC vote. So now that all 8 of played neighborhoods have 4 NAPs active each my game became unplayable - sims spam NAP defined action like crazy, it overrides my commands, it ovrrides needs etc. It spreads like plague.

Test 1: I tried to remove every single active NAP in the world through cheats - it didn't help, they still spam those actions.

Test 2: I loaded a save where NAPs never happened - no clay, no unexplained actions, everything fine.

Test 3: I created a new household in the save where I deleted NAPs through cheat - the news sims seem unaffected - no clay/cubes, no irresitible urge to bake cakes or give fake bad news to anyone.

Unfortunately, my main played households are all contaminated by this bug