Product: The Sims 4
Platform: PC, Desktop
Language: English
Original Post Title: [PC] Crashes to desktop after playing guitar (no error messages)
How often does the bug occur? Always (100%)
Game version: 1.63.136.1010
Expansions, game packs, and stuff packs installed: ALL OF THEM
Steps:
How can we find the bug ourselves [original post]? Play or practice with the guitar for a while then cancel the action.
How can we find the bug ourselves [NEW UPDATE]? Practice making drinks or doing bar tricks at maximum speed.
What happens when the bug occurs? Game crashes to the desktop without any error messages.
What do you expect to see [original post]? The sim puts the guitar down on the floor where it was picked it up.
What do you expect to see [NEW UPDATE]? Won't crash.
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? NO.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? Yes.
Please describe the patch or change you made: Purchased the Eco Lifestyle Expansion and reinstalled a fresh copy of the game.
Background:
The first time I posted an issue here was when my celebrity sim would "react in disgust" to everyone she met - sim or animals - even family. That's in another thread. I posted that last December 2019. Even though I later learned that there's a mod made by a 3rd-party gamer to fix the issue, I still wanted an official EA fix because we paid good money for this. The issue messed up my timing so much that I gave up playing altogether. I am a completionist gamer. I try to max out all my sim's skills and always start with the Renaissance Sim aspiration. But with that old sim, all instrument skills were maxed out - which means this specific bug did not exist back then. Now, I bought the new Eco Lifestyle Expansion and reinstalled a fresh copy of the game. No choice with that because my computer crashed a month ago and I had to reinstall Windows in a new SSD - that's the only hardware that was changed - HDD to SSD. It's essentially the same machine that I played Sims 4 with before. I wanted to play again to see if EA has finally fixed the "react in disgust" bug with the latest update. In order to do that, I am now building the same sim I made before and now steadily on the path to becoming a celebrity. Then suddenly, I get this new issue that I didn't have before.
Details:
So, to level up your skills, you need to do something related to that skill. I maxed out piano first and that went well. I got a violin but I am still on level 6 on that. I just maxed out my guitar skill but the crashes are really annoying (I have a workaround which I will discuss after this). So, this is what I do - I pick up the guitar and click "practice". I do this with fastest speed and look at the gauges rise. If I cancel the practice action within an hour or two (in-game time), it's all good. My sim will just put down the guitar. Another detail to note is that my sim has the "never hungry", "always fresh", and "never gets weary" reward traits. That really helps when you are cranking up skill-leveling. So, if you do hours and hours of straight practice (fun would be yellow at this point), canceling the practice action crashes the game. She will stop strumming and attempt to put the guitar down at which point, the game freezes for a second then crashes to the desktop. It seems like an animation bug or a graphical glitch of some kind. If you play songs (not practice), one or two songs are fine. If you queue up like four songs, the game will crash after the last song is played. It it helps, this also happened with the piano once or twice but that was it.
Workaround:
I get my sim to start practicing then I save the game. At half-gauge, I save the game. At new level, I save the game. I cancel out of the practice action, it crashes. I load the game, she is standing where she was practicing and the guitar is in her inventory with no loss of skill level gain (from the last save). I haven't tried the workaround for "playing songs" yet... just when practicing - which I will not be doing anymore since I have already maxed out guitar. Hopefully, the violin won't be having this issue because I am doing that next.
Update [6/26]:
I have done a lot of skill-maxing and added a basement to my lot. I have performed so many upgrades to new appliances and stuff and many time did the game crash. But I noticed that the crashes occur ONLY when the game is at fastest speed. It's like it is trying to load something or another sim is nearby and is doing something then that's when it goes crazy, freezes for a second, then crashes to the desktop. The next time I load the game, it doesn't crash anymore. But just a few minutes before I am writing this, I have saved the game at a spot near my bar where I would then start practicing making drinks or practicing bar tricks. If I keep the game running in normal speed, it crashed only one time. If I speed it up to fastest, it crashes every single time. It was just the guitar at first and now, it's the bar as well.
