Unable to evolve plants - they are all perfect too fast.

[meeshmeesh3]

Hi there, I hope this wasn't already a question, but I'm working on the freelance botanist aspiration (and have been for a long time), and I can't seem to get passed the "evolve 5 different plants" goal. I managed early in the game to evolve 2 plants as what seems to be normal (click on a plant and see the "evolve plant" option, and voila).... My issue is that that option never showed up again since the second time way back when I was skill level 2 or 3. I have an entire backyard of plants growing, and even the ones that start out at "normal" are evolving on their own to be perfect before I even get the chance to evolve them. I'm just about level 9 now and still am stuck in the beginning of the aspiration. 

I've seen others have an issue where the evolve plant option doesn't show up, but their plants are stuck at the level they were at. My plants seem to be autonomously be leveling up/evolving, not giving me the chance to evolve them for the aspiration. 

I just installed 3 packs (jungle adventure, tiny living, and get together, but I'm pretty sure it happened before that. I only had base game and eco living installed to begin with). 

[Psychotps · Accepted solution]

@meeshmeesh3That sounds about it then.

Just to be sure, keep an eye on the plants and their current evolution stage. IE. "Normal, Great, Magnificent", etc.

"Tending" to a plant won't make it evolve. You MUST click on "evolve" normally for that to work.

If you see a plant suddenly jump from say "Normal" to "Magnificent" or "Perfect" and you didn't hit Evolve, then that's the ECO Footprint. There is NO WAY to stop it from doing that without turning off the Eco Footprint.

The lot traits and tiny lots gardening boosts I mentioned won't make the plants jump in evolution. You still have to click on Evolve, the problem with the gardening boost traits is they evolve too quickly. I'll evolve a tomato plant one day, and the next day, it wants to evolve again. Since there are only 4 or 5 stages, and 2-3 days to grow from planting, they're all perfect in a week. I'd much rather stretch it out a bit... or a lot.

@RandomBuzziness Well, yeah. That's exactly the problem.  It's the Eco Footprint flaw.  Every time a neighborhood goes "green", all plants immediately jump up 2-3 stages in evolution without you doing anything.  Problem is, the ECO Footprint is so BROKEN, it's constantly jumping around. It goes from Green, to Neutral, to Industrial, and back to green within a day. And every time it does, your plants jump around with it. Green = +2 to +3  stages. Industrial = -2 to -3 stages.

If the darn ECO footprint would just stay still and not keep jumping around... it might be better.

[PugLove888]

@meeshmeesh3 , do you play on a console or on a PC or Mac?  If you play on a PC or Mac, do you happen to play with any Mods or CC?   Also, does this happen on just that one lot/household, or does it also happen on other lots or with other households?  What about in a different Save Game file? (Sometimes glitches can happen with just a lot/house , and other times it might just be that entire save game file, while yet in other cases the problem might be an actual bug that happens all the time. )   Also, since you were able to evolve a few plants early on, can you add a few new ones so that you might be able to get them to evolve?  I haven't been playing my older files, but on my newer saves I've been able to evolve my newer plants. 

Edit to add: You mentioned that you have Tiny Living.  Does the house that this is happening at happen to be a tiny home?  There is a boost to plants if you have a tier 1 tiny home! 
https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/stuffpacks/tinyliving/

[Psychotps]

@meeshmeesh3

What's likely happening is if you have ECO Lifestyles and ECO Footprint enabled in the game settings, your neighborhood will randomly change from "Industrial" to "Neutral" to "Green" and back again constantly. The whole system is broken and useless ATM.

When your neighborhood goes "Green", all your plants will suddenly rocket up from "Normal" to "Magnificent" and "Perfect" within a few hours and back to "Normal" again when the neighborhood footprint suddenly reverts every few hours. If your plants are "Magnificent", and the neighborhood goes "Industrial", the plants will suddenly revert down to "Normal".  It gets even worse if you have the "Green Initiatives" NAP enabled.

Also, I've noticed if you have ANY "gardening" related lot traits like Homey, Tiny Living lot traits, along with a BeeHive, your plants will evolve INCREDIBLY fast. I had to stop using BeeHives and the Tiny Lots because my plants were evolving DAILY. Within a week of planting, all my plants were all Perfect. It's seriously OP.

The Gardening system is very nice, and I love it a lot, but the whole thing is severely unbalanced ATM.  The whole ECO Footprint thing just made it a lot worse. I never use it any more. ALL of ECO is completely broken. I would highly recommend disabling all ECO settings in the game options.

If your plants are suddenly jumping from "Normal" to "Perfect" on their own, without you evolving them, then it's likely the ECO Footprint jumping around.  There's no way you can fix that without disabling ECO Footprint in the game settings.

If your plants are evolving normally, just too quickly, then remove all Gardening related traits or sim gardening traits, remove the BeeHive, and convert the lot from a "Tiny" lot to a normal residential lot. Your plants should evolve at a normal rate then.

Let me know if you have any problems with Gardening. I've been messing around with the gardening systems for a long time. I've been wanting to make a type of "Gardening Rebalanced" mod for a long time, but the systems are quite complex.  It works pretty well as long as you don't use anything that "boosts" the gardening. Then it goes all out of whack.

ThePsycho
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[meeshmeesh3]

Thank you both for the replies! I am using PC, no mods or cc. My home isn't tiny, and I don't believe I used anything from the pack (I had only just downloaded all of those packs that day, aside from eco living, which I bought the game with). I'll have to play around to see if it is because of the footprint, or lot traits, because I haven't paid too much attention to the footprint - but I have been using lot traits. The thing is that I *haven't* been evolving them, but I have been tending to the garden, so watering, weeding, and harvesting (occasionally talking and researching too). I will also bring my sim to another lot and try gardening there to see if they can evolve a plant elsewhere, thanks for the advice. I really just want to get the aspiration - I don't mind evolved plants although I do agree it seems very OP. 

I have tried planting new plants in my lot, and they start out normal. The next time I looked at them they had evolved themselves. Maybe I could also try fencing my garden to be sure other sims aren't entering? I don't ever see it but I suppose it's possible...

[RandomBuzziness]

@meeshmeesh3 Which world and which neighborhood is your Sim's house located at? There is a neighborhood in Evergreen Harbor called Grims Quarry and in a new game that neighborhood starts off with a Green Eco footprint. I don't know if it's a bug or by design but any plants I grow in a Green Eco Footprint neighborhood will evolve like crazy all the way to Perfect quality without my Sim doing much of anything. The neighborhood I am currently playing is in Newcrest and this neighborhood, like almost all other neighborhoods in the game, has a Neutral Eco Footprint. The plants I grow in this house evolve at a normal rate. I'm not playing that Aspiration but I have evolved many plants while playing this house. If you are playing Grims Quarry or any other neighborhood with a Green Eco Footprint maybe just try temporarily moving to a different house where the Eco Footprint is Neutral and plant your garden there.

[Psychotps · Accepted solution]

@meeshmeesh3That sounds about it then.

Just to be sure, keep an eye on the plants and their current evolution stage. IE. "Normal, Great, Magnificent", etc.

"Tending" to a plant won't make it evolve. You MUST click on "evolve" normally for that to work.

If you see a plant suddenly jump from say "Normal" to "Magnificent" or "Perfect" and you didn't hit Evolve, then that's the ECO Footprint. There is NO WAY to stop it from doing that without turning off the Eco Footprint.

The lot traits and tiny lots gardening boosts I mentioned won't make the plants jump in evolution. You still have to click on Evolve, the problem with the gardening boost traits is they evolve too quickly. I'll evolve a tomato plant one day, and the next day, it wants to evolve again. Since there are only 4 or 5 stages, and 2-3 days to grow from planting, they're all perfect in a week. I'd much rather stretch it out a bit... or a lot.

@RandomBuzziness Well, yeah. That's exactly the problem.  It's the Eco Footprint flaw.  Every time a neighborhood goes "green", all plants immediately jump up 2-3 stages in evolution without you doing anything.  Problem is, the ECO Footprint is so BROKEN, it's constantly jumping around. It goes from Green, to Neutral, to Industrial, and back to green within a day. And every time it does, your plants jump around with it. Green = +2 to +3  stages. Industrial = -2 to -3 stages.

If the darn ECO footprint would just stay still and not keep jumping around... it might be better.

[meeshmeesh3]

Thanks everyone. I didn't know that the eco footprint would *evolve* my plants like that, it should just make the process move quicker imo. I will try turning off the eco-footprint and see what happens (I am doing a legacy challenge so I don't want to have to move my family - they are in (I think) oasis springs - in the landgraab's lot. I definitely haven't been evolving them myself, and they are definitely evolving on their own - so I guess that all narrows down to the fact that I have Eco Lifestyle installed and it basically makes everywhere have a green eco footprint after a few days of playing (kind of OP if you ask me). 

I'll keep you all updated after I turn off the eco-footprint to see if that fixes it, but I will assume that will do the trick as it is the only explanation I can think of for this. Thanks again for your ideas! 

-Meesh