I am going to go into extensive detail about the issues I’ve had with this, and what I’ve done to try and alleviate these problems.
To begin, I thought I was the only one with this issue. I searched extensively for several days without any results until now. While this is unfortunate, I’m glad to see I’m not the only one! Overall this issue can be generally described as having build mode features leak into live mode, and controls not working as a whole once entering build mode. It appears that the issue is triggered by entering build mode, and I can’t definitively identify other causes.
Things to take into consideration:
- I purchased and installed the City Living and Vampire DLC on the same day this occurred, however it is coincidentally the same day a major update was released.
- I owned Parenthood DLC weeks prior to this issue.
- I am using a PS4.
- I personally know two others who have the same issue. They run PS4 also, and have the same DLC as me. They bought everything (the game and DLC) all on 04/16/19.
- For issues involving buttons not responding at all, I tested it with a brand new controller as well as my common use one for consistency.
Here is every issued I’ve expired since 04/16/19 regarding this, and persists to this very moment:
- Can not rotate items in build mode.
- Items will not sell, but rather will duplicate upon attempt. You can get it to sell, but with multiple tries.
- Items have issues when using square to re-color, will not work most times.
- Grid lines will appear in live mode when toggling R3 instead of centering on a sim.
- Grid lines will not disappear upon toggling it in build mode, and will transfer to live mode as well.
- Can’t use L2 and R2 to switch sims while in live mode. Pressing the buttons did nothing.
- When trying to switch floors, it will skip one so you can’t get to certain ones. So if I have a house with three floors, and I am on the first I could only access the first and third floor. This applies while in both build and live mode.
- Note: I can certainly say, at least in my experience, that all of the issues listed above are easily the most common problems and this is usually where it begins. From there it gets worse, it’s only the beginning. However, it doesn’t mean that the issues below aren’t equally as annoying or important. They will occur enough to make note of it.
- Allignment of objects is completely skewed at times, meaning I can’t place say a carpet where I want because the game is forcing my cursor to certain spots. Also became a major problem with windows personally, it would auto place windows in certain spots. Note: there is a work around where if you just place the item first where it’s forcing you too, then pick it up after it sort of helps you have freedom to place.
- Whenever I hover over any button in the game, such as Play for example when choosing the household to play as, it shows I can use triangle for quick eye dropper tool and square for quick design tool. This isn’t normal, as that’s a build mode feature.
- Whenever placing windows and doors, it would be facing the wrong way. Such as the outside part facing the inside. There was no way to fix this, and it didn’t happen when placing on some walls but did to others consistently.
- Generally when issues are occurring you may have to press the same button numerous times to get it to work, such as X when selecting an item to place.
- Using the D-Pad in general when this is happening has the opposite effect in build mode compared to live mode. It’s hard to describe, but for example say I am scrolling through a list of objects to buy. When using the D-Pad if I press Left to go left, it will also trigger the ability to change my walls. Like how you can show 1no walls, some walls, or all. So similarly, when I press Up to go up on the list of items it also brings me up a floor on my home. This happens when in build mode when trying to use the D-Pad in any capacity. These things never happened before to my knowledge. After this also, sometimes once I went into build mode my camera became stuck at a certain angle.
- When in build mode, there are two cursor modes but I would be stuck in one. To explain, I mean how you can free-roam with your cursor and move it with your joystick around the screen. Then the other mode where you move the D-Pad or joystick and it moves only from button to button. Well, I would get stuck only being able to move from button to button. Sometimes, I even wouldn’t be able to select anything during it so I had to close the application.
- Many times the game would actually just freeze in build mode, and I would have to close the application as it was not responding.
- In some instances although more rare compared to the others, most of the buttons would work while in build mode. Such as the D-Pad not responding, or the other side with triangle and square etc..
- Probably unrelated to this because it isn’t build mode specific, but whenever a sim invited me to go somewhere like a festival my sim never goes. My sim could be doing absolutely nothing when accepting the invitation, but it they never go.
How I tried to fix it:
- With the advice of their Twitter support I tried many things over the course of several days. I tried reinstalling the game three times, and restoring my license twice. I also tried saving my files on USB, and removing it as suggested by the Twitter support. I would then reinstall the game without my saves, download the DLC, and then reapply the saves. No matter what I tried, every new household I made (on new saves) encountered these issues. I also did power off my console completely between these attempts, and even restarted it after the installation was complete the final time.
- I did other testing of my own to see what specifically triggers this but I can’t conclude that a specific action does, other than just going into build mode in any way runs the risk. It does appear that going into build mode more frequently makes it worse as time goes on though. In general, as time goes on you will eventually have to close the game or just reinstall it because of how much the issues start to stack.
- I first thought going into build mode straight from the map is what triggered it, however since then I’ve seen this isn’t the case. It does it if you are in a household, and enter build mode from live mode too. I also tested it with families who had cheats enabled vs those who did not. I tested it with old, and new families all on different save files. This all with the same bad results. Also, when I say “it does it” I mean any of the listed issues I have above may happen. Maybe all of them at once, or maybe only a few because it’s different every time.
Temporary fixes:
- Restarting the game usually works, but not for long.
- Restoring your license may or may not work. I speculate it’s because the application closes, not actually because of restoring the license.
- Reinstalling the game helped for a longer period of time, however in the end it’s such a waste because it happens again anyway.
- Sometimes I would just exit to main menu and it would help, others it wouldn’t. This I found to be the least effective way as the issue comes back very quickly compared to others.
- Note: none of these were actually effective in terminating the problem. Even though I day it’s a temporary fix, how effective it was for me may be purely coincidental.
In conclusion:
- Build mode is “leaking” into live mode, and what is left of build mode barely is functional. This makes it a pain, and waste of time to attempt and build.
- Generally the controls for build mode just get mixed up with other controls for different modes, or build mode entirely refuses to cooperate with the buttons you are attempting to use. This quite literally applies to every button with the exception of the touch pad, start/options button, and share button.
- If I find more issues that are not already listed, I will add them if I can edit this comment. If not, I can reply to my own comment and add it there.
- Twitter support did suggest I post everything here so this can better be solved, so with all the time I took to compile this information I truly hope it’s worthwhile. Even if it just gives other players peace of mind that it is not their system that’s the issue. Also, thanks for reading this considering how long it is.
