EA has just announced a new free base game update for The Sims 4 that massively overhauls the way infants and toddlers work in-game and introduces a new type of clothing item: the Base Layer, which can be layered under other types of clothing items like tops and pants. The update also includes a multitude of new bug fixes and quality-of-life updates based on player feedback from the EA Forums and other social channels–including a fix for the issue causing photographs of Sims to display an all-black image rather than the actual photograph.
“Over the next few months, the team’s focus is on making that content even better by delivering improvements to the gameplay that matters most to Simmers,” EA said in a press release announcing the update. “The goal is to make the game players already know and love feel smoother, more intuitive, and more consistent, based directly on feedback shared across EA Forums, The Sims Discord, and other community channels.”
The update goes live next Tuesday, May 12, and will introduce the aforementioned Base Layer clothing items, which include camisoles, bras, binders, and other underclothes. There are a total of 14 base layer items (eight for adults, four for children, and two for toddlers) with over 380 color swatches and variants.
Speaking of toddlers, taking care of infant and toddler Sims will be much easier going forward. The update is introducing a new base game item, the Infant Playmat, which comes with nine color swatches and gives Sims a comfortable place to put their infant down, rather than simply placing them on the floor. The recurring bug in which a caregiving Sim refuses to care for their infant or toddler has also been squashed for good, according to EA, and Sims will now autonomously throw away dirty diapers rather than dropping them on the floor. Diaper changes now take roughly 33% less time to complete. Additionally, infants now eat faster and get hungry slower.
Older Sims are changing their behaviors, too–Sims who are awoken by a radio or television will now get up and turn it off before getting back into bed, stopping the endless loop of repeated wakeups and frustration that often occurs when players aren’t aware a radio or television has even been turned on in the first place.
But arguably the most exciting bug fix–at least for players with big Sim-families–is a solution for the long-standing “black photo bug,” in which photographs taken by Sims display as an all-black image. Going forward, photographs should work correctly, though the patch notes do not say that this is a retroactive bug fix, so players who are currently affected by the black photo bug may or may not get their Sims’ family photos restored when the update goes live.
For more info on everything included in The Sims 4’s new base game update, check out the full patch notes below.
Fixes for Most Voted Issues:
- “Black Photos”: Implemented 6 fixes addressing different causes of texture loss, along with additional QV testing on paintings and photos to catch previously unreported cases.
- At the time of writing, all known “black photo” bugs have been resolved. We’ll continue to monitor and address any new reports.
- [EA Forums] Sims will no longer keep putting down Infants before picking them back up.
- [EA Forums] Sims will no longer receive the “Secret Witness” Sentiment when a married or engaged Sim is witnessed WooHooing with their partner by another Sim.
- [EA Forums] “Can’t place item”: Fixed in both new and old saves.
- [EA Forums] Sims could get stuck with Scandal; this is now fixed for new cases, and existing affected saves will have the lingering VFX cleared.
New! Base Layer Feature
We’re adding a new category to Create a Sim called Base Layers, which will let Simmers express themselves by broadening their fashion choices, providing covered options, and improving gender expression with the layerable binder. There will be 8 Base Layer options for Adults, 4 Base Layer options for Children, and 2 Base Layer options for Toddlers, all in a variety of colors!
With 380+ new Base Layer variants (including all swatches) that can be layered, this gives players exponential new outfit combinations using any Top or Full Body CAS assets!
Infant and Toddler Improvements and Fixes
This update represents a significant investment into improving Infants and Toddlers, based on top EA Forums issues and additional feedback from Discord and Reddit. After extensive playtesting, we’re excited to share them with you!
- New Infant Playmat: Sims prefer placing infants on playmats instead of the floor, making care feel more natural that all players can now enjoy
- New toggle in the Options Menu to “Disable Caregiver Autonomy for Infants.” When enabled, all care is manual, though Sims will still socialize and you can use “Check Infant.” Neglect can lead to social services intervention.
- New Infant thought bubble for loud noises: Infants now react to loud noises with a buff and thought bubble, plus a one-time tutorial explaining why they wake, helping players address the cause instead of repeated pickups.
- Additional hovertip improvements, such as “Prefers Bottle Feeding” interactions to clarify that choosing a preference restricts autonomous feeding to that method only and Stand Up Milestone, where Infants needed specific nearby objects to pull themselves up [EA Forums].
- Infant tuning based on player feedback, such as;
- Sims will now clean up diapers left on the floor after changing an Infant or Newborn, as long as a trash can is nearby. (Base Game)
- Changing an Infant’s diaper at the Changing Table takes about a third less time than it used to. (Base Game)
- The Infant Hunger Need will now decrease slightly more slowly. We received light feedback on this and we’re hoping this slight tweak will prove the right balance for player realism and fun. (Basegame)
- Feeding an Infant will now take about fifteen minutes (Sim Time), which is half the time it previously took. (Base Game)
- Infant care interactions (Give Bottle, Change Diaper, etc.) should now appear on the first Pie Menu when an Infant’s Needs are low for your ease of access.
- Infant Milestones tied to Tummy Time now unlock twice as fast, addressing feedback that progression felt too slow – especially on shorter lifespans. With reasonable attention, most Milestones can now be achieved by around day 3. (Growing Together)
- 25+ bug fixes for top voted Infant and Toddler issues, including:
- [EA Forums][EA Forums] [EA Forums] Frequent Infant pickups and put downs, caregiver conflicts, and Sims freezing during care were major frustrations. This update includes multiple interconnected fixes to address these issues, all available in the Base Game.
- [EA Forums] Infant and Toddler Needs will no longer decrease when the Active Sim (and the player) is on another lot, away from them. We hope that this change will make caregiving for Infants and Toddlers more enjoyable. (Basegame)
- [EA Forums] Toddler Sims will no longer be hungry but would remain idle, despite having food. (Basegame)
- We received feedback that “reading to Toddlers” wasn’t working well, and we’ve addressed a few bugs related to this;
- [EA Forums] Toddlers are now able to successfully run the “Ask to Read Book” interaction on a teen or older Sim.
- The “Be Read to By” interaction on Toddler Books should now function when selected by an Infant.
- We fixed a code exception that could cause Sims to reset when an Adult Sim would click on a book and choose to “Read to Children.” (Basegame)
- [EA Forums] Infants Milestones are no longer disappearing or being reset when that Infant’s Household is visited while playing another Household. This is fixed in old saves as well as new ones. (Growing Together)
- [EA Forums] Infants are now able to act on their unlocked Milestone developmental progress when they are not at their Residential lot. This fix is retroactive in old saves where the bug had previously been occurring. (Growing Together)
Base Game: Autonomy & Sleeping Fixes
We didn’t stop with the Infants and Toddlers! Improving overall autonomy is a key player concern. Sims now dance far less (about once per day) and also no longer drink water autonomously, making behavior more predictable and less disruptive. Plus, additional bug fixes!
- [EA Forums] We fixed an issue that was causing NPCs to enter a house to drink water. Unfortunately, this fix was unable to be retroactive for saves in which this gameplay was already occurring.
- [EA Forums] Fixed an issue where Children could be taken away despite not being neglected. New checks ensure a Child must be actively failing (F) before this occurs. The fix is retroactive, but previously removed Children cannot be restored.
- [EA Forums] Sims with the Jealous trait will no longer get upset when their partner interacts with their own children Sims.
Sleeping autonomy has been improved following community feedback, addressing a mix of bugs and quality of life issues to make sleep behavior more reliable.
Base Game
- [EA Forums] Sims woken by a nearby TV or radio will now turn the device off and return to sleep. This keeps the intended wakeup behavior while making the cause clearer and reducing repeated interruptions.
- [EA Forums] We’ve added a hovertip to the Nap interaction to clarify that this interaction is meant to be shorter with a boost to Energy (rather than an interaction that fills the Need fully). Sims should not stay in the nap interaction until their Energy is full, but we wanted to help clarify this expected behavior.
- [EA Forums] Fixed an issue where exhausted Sims could get into bed but still collapse from fatigue. Sims who fall asleep in bed will now remain there instead of getting up and passing out.
- [EA Forums] There were callouts in the sleeping EA Forums thread where Sims weren’t sharing a bed with another Sim. We believe our other fixes have addressed this issue, though as a note, Sims will only sleep in the same bed when their relationship is high enough.
Lovestruck
- [EA Forums][EA Forums] There was an issue where Sims in a romantic relationship were getting out of bed when told to sleep simultaneously. We added an interaction called “Sleep and Cuddle” which will now allow this gameplay to function properly.
- [EA Forums] Canceling Cuddle on a sleeping Sim will no longer wake both Sims or interrupt their sleep. If the interaction is canceled after one Sim has joined another already in bed, both will remain in bed. Canceling Cuddle before either Sim is in bed will still result in both Sims getting up, as intended.
Royalty & Legacy Fixes
Among other fixes, Royalty and Legacy is getting a polishing pass too! Alongside the two top Community Reported Issues addressed in the list above you can also expect fixes for issues relating to the “Poor Leadership” sentiment being added to the Dynasty Head, Offspring of pre-made Dynasties not being added to a Dynasty, and pre-patch babies being born as a secret. We also made various updates to the Grand Ball event not functioning properly. You can expect to read more about these and other fixes on May 12th in the full list of Patch Notes.
- [EA Forums] Sims will now arrive wearing the selected dress code to a Grand Ball event (in line with the functionality for Funerals). As a note: any remaining oddities are due to tagging and would need reported and fixed individually. We did a pass and felt that outfits looked good with all packs, while selecting more common combinations.
- [EA Forums] The Mask option is no longer disabled after entering Create a Sim to change the Host’s outfit for a Grand Ball event.
- We fixed the mask icon in the UI for hosting a Grand Ball event.
Base Game: General Fixes
Alongside major improvements to Infants, autonomy, and sleep, this update will address a wide range of highly voted community issues across the Base Game and packs. Key fixes include resolving inventory bugs with photos, improving Family Tree accuracy, progress against preventing incorrect relationship changes in Create A Sim, and reverting the default Gallery sorting back to “Newest”.
Across packs and systems, we’ve fixed gameplay blockers, UI issues, and inconsistencies. Highlights include Gallery improvements like fewer upload timeouts and better sorting, fixes for disappearing animals and aging bugs, and improved event, trait, and interaction behavior. We’ve also made broad tagging, sorting, and visual updates in Create a Sim and Build Mode to improve organization and consistency.
The patch notes on May 12th will list these out individually, plus we’ll update the individual EA Forum threads too!
Updates on Top Community Issues
While shipping fixes for top issues, we also continue to investigate other top community reported issues:
- [EA Forums] We’re testing a future fix for Windows and Doors glitching into walls with certain Graphics Settings.
- We’re actively investigating a few challenging, (likely) performance-related issues that are highly voted within the community;
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- Console crashing after update 2.13, Lag after 1 Hour of Gameplay,
- Time Freezes while Environment still Moves.
- We’re continuing to investigate and ship fixes to reduce save file corruption. Following our March 10 update, Scratch files were moved from Documents to AppData for PC players to prevent conflicts with cloud backup services. Since rollout, we’ve seen improvements and are working to bring similar changes to Mac.
- Some save corruption issues, such as failed lot placement, infinite loading, or white screens, may be linked to heavy use of placement cheats or very large saves exceeding system memory. We believe we’ve identified a fix for at least one case and are exploring solutions for others.
- In the meantime, Memory Boost can help in certain situations, and we’re working on clearer ways to surface what’s happening and how players can respond.
- [EA Forums] We continue to investigate the cause of “partnered Sims forming an unintended family relationship upon entering CAS” issue. If testing goes well, a fix should be included in a future update.
- [EA Forums] Began investigating Autonomous Insulting/Mean Interactions happening in player games after Patch 1.108.349. In recent player submitted saves, this behavior looks to be As Designed, caused by the Vicious Dynasty Ideal, but we’ll continue to investigate.
