[OPEN] Excessive cooking/leaving food behind in picnic areas (Patch 1.72) [ Edited ]

[whitejade1979]

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:PC
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? 1.72.28.1030
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? Cats and Dogs, Eco Lifestyle, Vampires, Dine Out, Holiday
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Play any save in Live Mode for an extended amount of time, then move the camera to outside of the house/ have a sim go outside.
What happens when the bug occurs? Sims outside that aren't part of the household will continuously cook group meals (8 sim size), specifically on grills, set it on a nearby picnic table, and do more cooking. The food stays there until all nearby tables are full of spoiled dishes, then cleared by a different sim so that they can do it themselves.
What do you expect to see? An autonomous sim should not repeatedly be cooking group meals. They should make enough for themselves and satisfy their hunger need. Group meals should not be piling on picnic tables ad nauseum.
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? No

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If it helps, I have only ever seen this specific behavior on autonomous sims outside of my household, and SPECIFICALLY on grills near picnic tables.  I think it has something to do with the grills themselves, but it might be because of the picnic tables.  It must be separate from the bigger "constantly cooking" bug, since it only happens to group meals, on grills, near picnic tables, to townies. 

I have to turn the dynamic environment feature of Eco Lifestyle off, since sims are randomly coming to the neighborhood only to grill, and my sims' actions just can't keep up well enough to stop the environment from turning industrial.

Edit By Crinrict: Adjusted Title

[crinrict]

@whitejade1979 They only cook in the common area, right ? Not coming into your house ?
if so, this is something that happened always. Did you never seen this before ? 

Might merge this later if I find an older active bug report.

It might have been toned down at some point cause there's also a report of them not doing it anymore: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/Neighbours-don-t-use-community-grills-anymore/m-p/9467948

EDIT: There's an older archived thread: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/ARCHIVED-Excessive-cooking-leaving-food-behind-in-picnic-areas... .. that's what you're seeing, right ? I'm not sure if we have a current one. Need to look further but want to make sure that's the same you're seeing now.

[whitejade1979]

It is only occurring in the common area, and it's been happening for a while, but it wasn't really noticeable until I got Eco Lifestyle, so I didn't really care. From what I'm reading, it seems almost identical to the archived thread that you linked, but primarily in Newcrest instead of Willow Creek.  They're definitely still doing it, though. 

[adduapina]

Me too'd this because there's piling of group meals on common areas to be seen. Haven't paid attention to NPCs so I have not been able to catch them in the act though.

No mods/cc, 1.72.28.1230, all content installed except JtB. 

Also wanted to comment on this since it might be linked to the issues I've been having with de-stressing decotion/cooking obsessed roommates.

[whitejade1979]

I can't say for certain if this has anything to do with roommates, since my sims usually live alone, but I can see the relation.

[halloweenchild13]

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? Up to date as of the Paranormal Stuff Pack
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? All except for Bowling, Journey to Batuu, Knifty Knitting and Moschino
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Take your sim to any neighbourhood with a public space with a grill and watch the chaos unfold (I suggest Del Sol Valley or Willow Creak for best results)
What happens when the bug occurs? NPC's grilling party size servings of food, to only eat a single serving leaving the food behind to spoil. Resulting in plates of spoiled and rotting food everywhere.
What do you expect to see? NPC's not continuously grilling and leaving gigantic servings of food lying around.
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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Right now I'm playing a Rising-Star sim in Del Sol Valley, everytime I have her go for a jog I always see plates and plates of party-sized servings of food left abandoned in the little park area, even worse is when I have my sim throw away the rotting food there is always 1-5 NPC's in the area milling about and taking turns grilling food nonstop. I just spent an entire sim hour throwing away all of the leftover food (since I can't add it to my inventory) so it wouldn't spoil and stink up the place. having to do this once is enough, but having to do it multiple times a day because NPC's would rather grill their own food instead of eating the already made food is really annoying.  

I don't know if this is an ongoing issue or if it was fixed and something broke it, but it is really starting to get on my nerves. 

[alakurielle]

I'm seeing this too, but the NPCs don't even bother eating any of it usually - they just pile up plate after plate of food until they run out of space. Even had it happen in my Sim's house when she had someone over, and boy was that a nightmare - you try to clean it up, and they just go back to cooking until every surface is filled again (and of course, ask to leave disappeared, so the only way to get rid of them in the end was to travel to another lot with them, then leave them there).

I have all the packs except the new vacuuming kit, and have never used mods or cc. Very frustrating - and GROSS!

[alakurielle]

I had this happen in my Sim's house, after she invited someone to spend the night - the next morning, after the ask to leave option had disappeared, they proceeded to fill every surface in the house with group meals which they never ate. Trying to clean any of it up just sent them running right back to the stove to cook more. Ended up having to leave the lot with them to get them to leave/stop.

Also happened when another of my Sim's invited an NPC on a camping trip - they just cooked nonstop until I sent them home.

No mods/cc.

[PoptartJuniper]

I'm seeing this on PS5. I had a sim living in Brindleton Bay and every day this is what the picnic area looked like. 

[stjmk]

@PoptartJuniper The endless cooking loop is so obnoxious. I despise the Snowy Escape patch for introducing it.